Home Office minister Norman Baker has quit the Cabinet, launching an attack on his Conservative boss, Home Secretary Theresa May.
The Liberal Democrat crime prevention minister is stepping down after a year of internal battles with Mrs May.
He is being replaced as Home Office minister by fellow Lib Dem Lynne Featherstone.
Last week, Mr Baker became embroiled in a fresh disagreement over drugs policy and accused the Tories of suppressing a report which backed his case for a review of the current law.
Mr Baker said: "I'm afraid that the Home Secretary, who I think is a formidable woman and a very competent Home Secretary, has one great drawback, which is that she regards this a Conservative department in a Conservative government and it's not.
"It's a Coalition department in a Coalition government and I'm afraid that mindset has rather soured things."
He added: "Clearly, there were issues which were in my portfolio which I wanted to take forward and under normal circumstances in any other department I would have been allowed to progress and really there were obstacles put in the way sometimes.
"Her special advisers, in particular, were scrutinising what I was doing and they tried to minimise my room for manoeuvre."
Mr Baker told The Independent the experience of working at the department was like "walking through mud" as he found his plans thwarted by her and her advisers.
The Lib Dem MP also accused Mrs May of viewing her Coalition colleagues as "a cuckoo in the nest rather than part of Government".
In his resignation letter to party leader Nick Clegg, he said: "I regret that in the Home Office, the goodwill to work collegiately to take forward rational evidence-based policy has been in somewhat short supply.
"I have concluded, therefore, that for the time being at least, my time is better spent out of ministerial office.
"You will of course continue to have my full support in the run-up to, and beyond, the next election which I anticipate is likely to produce another hung parliament."
In reply, Mr Clegg said: "Thank you for the brilliant job you have done as a minister over the past four and a half years, first at the Department of Transport and more recently at the Home Office.
"In both posts you have proved yourself as one of the most effective ministers in Government: always determined to deliver a more liberal agenda for Britain."
Ms Featherstone has said she is "very happy to be returning to the Home Office".
"I have always had a very constructive relationship with Theresa May and I look forward to working with her again," she said.
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