Lord Carter to quit the government

COMMUNICATIONS minister Lord Carter is to quit the government, it emerged last night, in the latest high-profile resignation to hit Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Carter, who was made a peer following a brief spell coordinating strategy at Number 10, is thought to be planning a return to the private sector once he has published his long-awaited Digital Britain report.

The former public relations supremo joined Downing Street from Brunswick, where he reportedly earned £500,000 a year as chief executive. He took a huge pay cut to become Brown’s chief of strategy and principal adviser, a job which paid an annual salary of £140,000.

But Carter left Number Ten after just 10 months, following a dispute with Damian McBride, Brown’s disgraced spin doctor, and took a peerage in October to become communications minister, where he was tasked with re-shaping the government’s approach to digital media and the internet.

It is thought that Carter has told Brown he will only serve until July, at which point he hopes to engineer a low-key return to business.