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UK minister quits over speeding row

AFP, London
British Energy Secretary Chris Huhne resigned yesterday after being told he will face criminal charges over allegations that he dodged a speeding penalty, but vowed to prove his innocence.
Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer announced that Huhne and his ex-wife, Vicky Pryce, will be charged with perverting the course of justice over the alleged incident in 2003 and will appear in court on February 16.
Starmer announced the charges in a rare televised public statement, ending months of speculation about Huhne's future.
"We have concluded that there is sufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against Mr Huhne and Ms Pryce for perverting the course of justice," the prosecutor said, adding that both would now be served with summonses.
"The essence of the charges is that between March and May 2003, Mr Huhne, having allegedly committed a speeding offence, falsely informed the investigating authorities that Ms Pryce had been the driver of the vehicle in ques-tion, and she falsely accepted that she was the driver."
Less than an hour later the Liberal Democrat lawmaker, who played a key role in UN climate change talks in South Africa in December, said he was resigning as secretary of state for energy and climate change to fight the case.
"I'm innocent of these charges and I intend to fight this in the courts, and I'm confident a jury will agree.
"So as to avoid any dis-
traction to either my official duties or my trial defence, I am standing down," Huhne told reporters outside his London flat.
He will remain a member of parliament.
Huhne is a senior member of the Liberal Democrat party, which shares power in Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative-led coalition, and becomes the third minister to quit since the government took power in May 2010.
Cameron said he was sorry to see Huhne go but it was the "right decision", while Lib Dem leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg expressed hope that he would soon return to frontline politics.
The claims first emerged in 2010 after Huhne announced he was having an affair and would be leaving his wife. He and Pryce, who have three children and two stepchildren together, divorced last year.
Huhne, a former journalist at the Economist, the Guardian and the Independent, was elected to parliament in 2005 to repre-
sent Eastleigh in southeast England, after six years as a member of the European Parliament.
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem minister for employment relations, consumer and postal affairs, is the favourite to replace Huhne.