Oh dear, Mr Byers again!

Byers was warned about Nats sell-off

By Nick Assinder BBC News Online political correspondent

There was an almost grim inevitability that the sell-off of the air traffic control system would come back to haunt the government.

First there was the pre-1997 election promise that "our air is not for sale" which was swiftly reversed after the poll.

Rover workers felt betrayed

Then there were dire warnings from Commons committees, backbench MPs and independent bodies that it would compromise safety.

These were accompanied by claims - most recently by BAE Systems and even the CAA - that the entire project was financially flawed and the system would be unable to weather any economic downturn.

Lastly, of course, it was left in the hands of Stephen Byers who, justly or otherwise, has developed a sort of Dennis the Menace reputation for messing up everything he touches.

He easily holds the record for the minister with the most demands for his head.

Dole office

So there was always the feeling that fate had something nasty in store for Nats - as well as Mr Byers.

And, needless to say, the crisis currently facing the organisation is adding to pressure on Tony Blair to finally give his transport secretary a one way ticket to the dole office.

Disaster first struck for Mr Byers two years ago when German car giant BMW announced it was ditching Rover.

The announcement infuriated the unions and appeared to take the government, and then Trade Secretary Mr Byers in particular, by surprise.

When he did get up to speed on it, it became increasingly clear there was nothing he and his non-interventionist government could, or would, do to help the workforce.

It was a similar story over the threats to the Corus steel plant and Motorola.

Public dispute

When Mr Byers was moved to Transport after the election last year trouble seemed to travel with him.

There were the perpetual attacks over the crumbling transport infrastructure and then calls for his head over his "re-nationalisation" of Railtrack.

That one saw him and Railtrack bosses knocking chunks out of each other in a bitter public dispute over the move.

Meanwhile his spin doctor Jo Moore infamously got caught trying to use 11 September to bury bad news.

Mr Byers is proving a magnet for trouble

He stuck by her but within weeks she was at it again and ended up locked in a public row with civil servant Martin Sixmith, apparently proving that her boss had absolutely no control over his department.

So to discover that the Nats privatisation is going horribly wrong and may see the government having to fork out more taxpayers' cash comes as little surprise.

It is not an issue to be made light of, but many believe Mr Byers' role in it could quickly turn it into a farce.

So all eyes will now be on him to see if he can handle this latest controversy without further damaging his credibility.