Clare Short hops on ministerial 77A bus

Clare Short, Secret-ary of State for International Development, is spurning her ministerial car in favour of the bus, writes Stephen Castle.

The minister was spotted on Friday on the 77A from her home in Clapham to Westminster. She used it in opposition and intends to continue doing so.

A spokesman said: "If she needs to go to an important meeting or take ministerial boxes, she will use her car. But she is determined not to be a prisoner or to be cut off from reality."

In her first set-piece speech this week Ms Short will promise an ethics- based international development policy, and give her backing to an international target of reducing world poverty by half by the year 2015.