Lost leader

Taking over from Yvette Cooper, a minister seen as sympathetic or abrasive depending on who you talk to, was always going to be a tough proposition – even before the housing and financial market crises undermined most of the assumptions on which existing policy was based.

But Flint showed a determination to make her mark right from the start. Her first speech lit the blue touchpaper with comments on worklessness that appeared to suggest that tenants should risk losing their homes if they fail to look for work.

Next up was eco-towns. She inherited the idea, but it was she who had to defend it against the Mail, the Telegraph, the Tories, Tim Henman’s mum and Jeremy Clarkson.

The housing market? She may have been housing minister, but there was not much she could do about it.

She announced a series of puny rescue packages and seemed oblivious to the danger that encouraging more people into home ownership might simply mean encouraging them into negative equity.

She also seemed slow to respond to the risks posed to social housing policy, which was over-dependent on the market through section 106 deals and cross-subsidy from sales proceeds.

But the remaining image will be that of her papers on the way into a Cabinet meeting admitting that ‘we can’t know how bad it will get’. In fairness to her, we still don’t.