By BBC News online's Nick Assinder.

Dr David Clark is one of the good guys of politics.

The 58-year-old South Shields MP loathes the manipulative, Machiavellian side of party politics and has always approached his job with a genuine and open attitude.

But, as a result, he often appears out of kilter with New Labour and its emphasis on spin and rigid control.

Rumours about his imminent demise from the Cabinet have been circulating for months, usually coming from colleagues with their own axes to grind or careers to push.

At the end of last year, he became so fed up with the attempts to destabilise him that he launched a bitter, and probably unwise, counter-attack in the media.

He claimed unnamed colleagues were involved in a campaign to smear him. He was probably right, but the outburst backfired and he was accused of paranoia and of whingeing to the press.

Keen green minister

David Clark out of kilter with New Labour

A former polytechnic lecturer, Dr Clark is one of a dying breed of working class Labour MPs who have won jobs on the frontbench through tireless hard work and genuine popularity.

He is fiercely pro-green and an avid rambler and was most in his element when he was opposition spokesman on the environment in the 1980s.

He was less happy later when he was made shadow defence secretary after Labour had finally abandoned its anti-nuclear stand and the issue was low on the political agenda.

Most recently, as the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, he has come under attack for a lacklustre performance.

In fact, most colleagues admire the way he drafted the government¿s White Paper on Freedom of Information.

His attempts to get ministers to carry electronic red boxes based on laptop computers have been less successful.