On Tuesday night, the energy and climate change secretary was standing in the canteen in the basement of his DECC department. He appeared relaxed and upbeat, and discussed why he believed he was right to continue DECC’s legal fight over feed-in tariffs, which has now reached the Supreme Court. Now a very different legal battle has ended Chris Huhne’s frontbench political career. The Crown Prosecution Service’s announcement of charges against the now former cabinet minister and his ex-wife, charges which they both deny, marks the greatest test of Huhne’s self-belief. One of the most supremely self-confident men in British politics (see our in-depth interview from 2011 here) will now be discovering just how deep his reserves of mental strength are.

The loss of Huhne will have limited impact on the immediate balance of the government. David Cameron will not use this opportunity to have a wider reshuffle, so it will simply be a straight swap into and out of the cabinet. However, there will be longer-term implications on the relationship between the two parties. Huhne was willing to break cabinet conventions to stick it to his Conservative colleagues, most prominently when he was highly critical of their anti-AV campaign. Widely accused of being leaky, he was a vociferous defender of the Lib Dems at the highest levels of government. His replacement at DECC, Ed Davey, is a different character and I can’t see him being quite so willing to criticise the prime minister or chancellor.

Davey was once a Lib Dem high-flier who then experienced a flatline in his rapid rise. Now he must take on a relatively small Whitehall department with a vast and complicated policy brief. He must also master the international diplomacy that comes with the role that Huhne loved. Huhne is a man who feels he belongs on the biggest political stages.

The former energy secretary was never loved by his party in the same way as Vince Cable or Tim Farron. He was respected, rather than deeply admired by the Lib Dem rank-and-file. There was no mistaking, though, the cojones of a politician willing to stand for his party’s leadership within months of becoming MP. It was also only the matter of a few thousand unopened postal ballots that prevented him becoming his party’s leader. Until this morning, Huhne was a Lib Dem big beast, who played a prominent part at the cabinet table. Westminster’s third biggest party doesn’t have the depths of talent to hide the loss of Huhne. The man himself now faces his biggest battle.

Tags: Cabinet, Chris Huhne, Coalition Government, David Cameron, Ed Davey, Lib Dems Are Filth, Nick Clegg