London, June 20 (IANS) The record of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s cabinet as a group of happily married members with the least number of divorcees took a beating as Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne confirmed he is separating from his wife of 25 years and is in a relationship with another woman.
The 55-year-old Liberal Democrat MP said in a statement that he was in a serious relationship with a former journalist.
This is actually the second time Cameron’s cabinet record has been brought into question. Last month, chief secretary of the treasury David Laws resigned from the cabinet after revelations that he claimed 40,000 pounds of taxpayers’ money allegedly to pay rent to his boyfriend.
But for these two cases, all the 25 members of the cabinet and six other invitees to cabinet meetings are all married even if some of them are into their second marriages.
Lord Chancellor and Secretary of Justice Kenneth Clarke and leader of the House of Commons Sir George Young have been married for the longest since 1964.
Secretary for Olympics, Media and Sports Jeremy Hunt is the most recently married and will be celebrating his first wedding anniversary later this year.
Three members of the cabinet – Business Secretary Vince Cable, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley and minister without portfolio Bagum Warisi — are into their second marriages. Cable remarried after his first wife died but wears both wedding rings.
Among all government departments, the department of energy and climate seems to attract ministers with quirky twists in their personal lives. Like Huhne, his deputy Gregory Barker too divorced his wife of 14 years three years ago to be with a boyfriend.
Current shadow secretary for the department in the Labour Party Ed Miliband is separated from his previous partner and lives with his current partner.
Previous governments in the modern period are said to have had cabinets with between six and seven divorces or divorcees each.
