Job was preventing me sleeping, says Morris

Estelle Morris stunned teachers by appearing at their annual awards ceremony at the weekend and telling them: "This is the nicest evening I've had in six weeks."

The former secretary of state for education, who resigned last week after acknowledging she had not done as well as she had wanted, won two standing ovations from teachers at the London ceremony, the first when her presence was announced and the second after an impromptu speech.

Ms Morris told the teachers, regional winners in the BBC's annual "Teacher of the Year Awards", that she was beginning to get back to a normal life and said she had gone shopping for the first time in weeks on Saturday. She had been confronted by a Big Issue seller who said: "Are you that Estelle Morris? You've made a big mistake.''

"That was just when I was beginning to feel that things were beginning to get better,'' she said. "He said, 'Never give up on a job before you've got another one to go to'. I told him not to worry, I was still an MP, and he replied: 'Oh, well, that's all right then'.''

Ms Morris said teachers were not responsible for her decision to quit, adding: "You don't have to understand what I've done. You do have to understand it wasn't because of you. It's not that I don't still love you and believe in you.''

She said she was enjoying the "nicest evening I've had in six weeks'' and joked: "Maybe tomorrow I won't wake up at 4am.'' During the controversy over the marking of this summer's A-levels she admitted having sleepless nights.