Are Foulkes Rumours Coming True?

Could the rumours about Baron George Foulkes quitting the Scottish Parliament due to pressures of being on the Intelligence and Security committee at Westminster be true?

I`ve posted on this rumour a couple of times now (here and here) but as I said in those posts I didn`t think much would come of it…until today that was. There is a report in the Evening News to the effect that Baron Foulkes has quit the Sub-Leg Committee claiming he was appointed to it by mistake.

Since the Intelligence committee seems to meet on a Tuesday in Westminster and the Sub Leg Committee also meets on a Tuesday in Edinburgh Baron Foulkes has decided to give up the Scottish Parliament position in favour of the Westminster role.

We’ll have to wait and see if time pressures from the Intelligence committee force him to quit Holyrood altogether as rumours suggest. However the Intelligence committee is appointed by the PM, so perhaps when Gordon Brown takes over he will relieve Baron Foulkes of this task to allow him to do committee work in Edinburgh.

As a curious aside to this since Helen Eadie has already quit the Sub-Leg Committee this meant at the first meeting of the committee there was just one Labour MSP, Elaine Smith, present. Elaine Smith has decided to buck the Labour trend and remain on the committee.