Lord Strathclyde resigns from cabinet 7 January 2013 Last updated at 12:18 By James Landale Deputy political editor Lord Strathclyde is standing down from the cabinet with immediate effect. He informed David Cameron over the new year and told the cabinet at their meeting on Monday morning. At the age of 52, he is going voluntarily while he still has time to pursue a second career in business. His friends insist there is absolutely no political reason for his departure. It is just, they say, that he feels he has done his time. It is 25 years since Margaret Thatcher gave him his first job as a whip and he has been on the Conservative front bench ever since. He has served six party leaders, including three prime ministers. The peer has been the Tory leader in the Lords for 14 years since his predecessor Lord Cranborne was sacked by William Hague in 1998 for "running in like an ill-trained spaniel" and negotiating secretly with Tony Blair over Lords' reform. He was also a minister of state at the Department of Trade and Industry during the 1990s and his various junior ministerial jobs covered tourism, Scotland, the environment, and consumer affairs. He will be replaced by education minister Lord Hill of Oareford, who entered the Lords in 2010.