THE trade minister Lord Jones today chose Manchester to officially announce his resignation but vowed to continue battling for business.

He told delegates gathered for a conference organised by the CBI at the Bridgewater Hall that it had never been his intention to remain as minister of state for trade and investment for longer than two years.

After 15 months in the role he had decided that the time was right to do “something new” and return to the private sector.

“At the moment there is no-one fighting for business, and this is what I intend to do in the House of Lords in addition to working for the private sector, where I originally came from,” he told the MEN.

“I think that Gordon Brown’s leadership is very, very good indeed and I told him in July that I wanted to move on and do other things. The reshuffle was the perfect opportunity to do that.

“One of the things I’m most proud of is that after 15 months in this job I’m leaving UK Trade and Investment in a fantastic shape.

“I think that it had previously been regarded as a backwater within the civil service and there used to be little esprit de corps there – and the opposite is now the case.

“I’ve also improved the relationships with the regional development authorities.

“I will be sad to leave but this is the right time to move on and lobby for business in no uncertain terms from the House of Lords.”

As a senior lawyer and ex-CBI chief, Lord Jones – formerly Sir Digby – was one of the non-political outsiders brought in to widen the expertise in government.

Lord Jones revealed to the MEN that he has already been approached by the Conservative party to work for them in a similar capacity if they gain power at the next election.

This offer was withdrawn by the Tories when he told them that he was not prepared to join any political party.

In his speech at the CBI’s ‘international markets and globalisation conference’ he made clear his view that it is imperative that Britain – and particularly the north west – capitalises on the knowledge and expertise based here in the future.

He praised the great expertise in north west universities and said that it is this that will ensure that we are able to fully compete with the developing economies of China, Russia and India in the future.

For a full report on Lord Jones’ views on international markets, see Monday’s MEN Business section.

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