Exit stage left for the master of disaster Chris Grayling as he makes final appearance as a minister

He came, he saw, he failed to conquer and went with a whimper, Chris Grayling, the definitive political "master of disaster" has left the building.

“Failing Grayling”, as he was known amongst some of the more acerbic political commentators and parliamentarians, had single handedly managed to cost the British taxpayer approximately £3bn in aborted projects, compensation, and general wastage. In fact it could be argued that never has so much been squandered so heavily by so few.

However, not only has the former justice and transport secretary squandered enough money to buy two premier league football clubs, he has also sat firmly on his hands in relation to the taxi industry.

Despite there being cross-party support regarding the All Party Parliamentary Group report into taxis, he still managed to procrastinate for an excessively long period of time, leaving the taxi industry in the UK in disarray as technology hurtled past legislation at break-neck speed.

According to The Guardian, Grayling oversaw the spending of £2bn on the Virgin Trains East Coast franchise in 2018, £437m on a botched privatisation of the probation service in 2014, and of course who can forget the offer of a £13m contract to a ferry company that didn’t have any ferries.

During Grayling's final appearance as a minister, Michael Ellis defended his boss after Shadow junior transport minister Karl Turner asked as to whether Grayling would use his last outing at the dispatch box to apologise for having wasted so much money.

Grahame Morris, Labour MP for Easington in County Durham took to Twitter to say: "Exit Failing Grayling the £3bn master of disaster bows out. John Grace on the depature of #FailingGrayling the failure's failure. No other minister has wasted quite so much while justice and transport secretary."

Lillian Greenwood, MP for Nottingham South said on Twitter: "Chris Grayling will be missed by @John Grace if there's a new transport secretary next week. Not sure Chris will miss John."

John Grace is the parliamentary sketch writer for The Guardian, who mercilessly lampooned Chris Grayling at will.

However, Chris Grayling may still be around parliament in some capacity. He is a staunch Brexiteer, and with the ever increasing likelihood of Boris Johnson becoming Britain’s next Prime Minister, Johnson may need all the allies he can muster.

Image Source: Gov.UK