Ford chief to oversee Railtrack replacement

Ford UK chairman Ian McAllister is to head the team preparing a new body to take over from Railtrack, the Department of Transport has announced.

He will chair the team responsible for putting together the details of a private sector company run on commercial lines but without shareholders.

"I do not underestimate the challenge this represents," said Mr McAllister who will be working part–time in his new role while continuing to be employed by Ford.

He went on: "My experience at Ford has shown that with the right management,

investment and planning, companies can be transformed."

The setting up of a company limited by guarantee (CLG) to replace Railtrack was first announced by Transport Secretary Stephen Byers when he took steps to put cash–strapped Railtrack into administration at the beginning of October.

The CLG team, to which Mr McAllister will give strategic direction, will put forward a proposal to accountants Ernst & Young who are the Railtrack administrators.

The administrators will evaluate this and all other bids to take over from Railtrack before putting a proposed transfer scheme to Mr Byers for approval.

Senior Labour backbencher Tam Dalyell said that if Ms Moore was responsible for the release of the minutes, then both she and Mr Byers should go.

"If she did it, it was clumsy and cack–handed beyond belief," told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

He said that the political damage inflicted on Mr Byers was "cumulative" and "considerable".

Asked if Mr Byers should resign as well as Ms Moore, he replied: "Yes. If she did it."

He called for a return to the time when all Government press officers were civil servants – as was the case when he was parliamentary private secretary to Richard Crossman in the housing department in Harold Wilson's government and the press officer was Peter Brown.

"Peter Brown would say, 'Yes Mr Crossman, I will put that out for you', or 'No Mr Crossman that would be improper. That is party political, it is not right that I should do that on behalf of the department'. There was absolutely no argument. Peter Brown's decision was gospel," Mr Dalyell said.

"They shuld go back to respect for the civil service."

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said the latest incident should be "curtains" for Ms Moore. He said that Mr Byers had also been damaged but stopped short of calling for his resignation.

"I think there is a degree of corrosion that is taking place here politically where Stephen Byers is concerned over a variety of issues.

He is certainly looking at the moment like damaged goods," he told Today.

Meanwhile, the outgoing chairman of the Strategic Rail Authority Sir Alastair Morton warned that Mr Byers urgently needed to get a grip on Railtrack.

"I think that it is sinking back on its haunches. As its performance gets less purposeful and its management gets less purposeful you will see things going wrong that need not have gone wrong. Ministers and the management must get a grip on it," he told Today.

"You are always seeing talk of initiatives. Actually saying you want something to be done doesn't get it done. You actually have to put it in place and then ensure that it is being properly managed and then ensure that it is still being done a few weeks, a few months, a couple of years after you first said it should be done."

Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman insisted today: "Jo Moore did not brief the journalists herself. In reference to the four newspapers involved, Jo Moore was not involved in the briefing.

"There was an internal discussion within the department and the methodology that was adopted came as a result of that internal discussion."

But he conceded the row over the release of the documents was "an unnecessary and unfortunate distraction".

The spokesman said Mr Blair's position had not changed since he backed Mr Byers' decision not to fire Ms Moore in the wake of her original e–mail suggesting September 11 was a good day to "bury" bad news.