(London): Ministerial spokesperson Malcolm DeConnerie today told reporters that the Government were highly apologetic after a member of the public discovered the Minister for Barking the Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MBE left on the 12.15 London to Liverpool train.
Hodge, Minister of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, appears to have been mislaid by a lesser member of the civil service who had been taking her to a conference in Winchester.
The minister was discovered by Mr John Pratt of Liverpool who handed the mislaid lady to the News Of The World for safekeeping.
"I couldn't believe it," said Mr Pratt. "I sat down and nudged something with my foot, I was expecting a used beer can, not an information laden Sexagenarian that any terrorist could have read."
The News of the World handed the minister over to a government courier with assurances she hadn't been read by Mr Pratt or themselves.
DeConnerie read a statement out during the press conference: "We are extremely concerned about what has happened and we will be taking steps to ensure that it doesn't happen in the future.
"From now on all ministers will have to be signed for when removed from the premises and will be tagged with a GPS tracking device."
The discovery came only days after Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills John Denham was found abandoned on a roundabout in Devon.
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2008-06-14 @ 21:37