A POLITICAL member for the Department of Education and Children has resigned following a row over pre-school education.
Dudley Butt MLC quit his role during the February sitting of Tynwald yesterday (February 22).
Mr Butt, who is also a political member for the Department of Health, disagreed with the planned cuts to government run pre-school education in the Isle of Man.
He told Manx Radio he had "fought his battle in the department and lost" so felt he could no longer continue.
Speaking about Mr Butt's resignation Peter Karran, the Minister for Education and Children, said: "It's with regret the way that I've had to accept the resignation as far as Dudley Butt is concerned.
"Dudley did what we did but he was misguided as far as what he has done but the fact is I'm satisfied that it wasn't done with malice.
"After conversations after Tynwald I think the situation is that he has made his views known, and I respect those views and the way he has dealt with it, which has helped us understand it wasn't done for political ends that I was concerned about originally."
Mr Butt told Tynwald that he, and his other political colleagues within the Department of Education and Children, was unaware of the planned cuts – something which Mr Karran called "misguided".
Mr Karran continued: "The fact is that what I've got to do is get on with the job of trying to be the Minister of an education department that has already taken severe cuts in the past and hasn't got the luxury of being able to throw money at projects in the future which is going to be a very difficult learning curve for the whole of the new Council of Ministers – particularly the ones who have been in previous administrations."
It is not yet clear if the Department of Education and Children will get a new political member to replace Mr Butt.
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