The Cabinet: Who's Who

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<a class="bodl" href="#pm">Prime Minister - Gordon Brown</a><a class="bodl" href="#chancellor">Chancellor - Alistair Darling</a><a class="bodl" href="#justice">Justice - Jack Straw</a><a class="bodl" href="#whip">Chief Whip - Nick Brown</a><a class="bodl" href="#commons">Commons - Harriet Harman</a><a class="bodl" href="#culture">Culture - Andy Burnham</a><a class="bodl" href="#defence">Defence- John Hutton</a><a class="bodl" href="#development">Development - Douglas Alexander</a><a class="bodl" href="#duchy">Energy and climate - Ed Miliband</a><a class="bodl" href="#children">Education: Children - Ed Balls</a><a class="bodl" href="#higher">Higher Education - John Denham</a><a class="bodl" href="#environment">Environment - Hilary Benn</a> <a class="bodl" href="#foreign">Foreign Secretary - David Miliband</a><a class="bodl" href="#health">Health - Alan Johnson</a><a class="bodl" href="#home">Home Secretary - Jacqui Smith</a><a class="bodl" href="#business">Business - Peter Mandelson</a><a class="bodl" href="#lords">Lords Leader - Baroness Royallof Blaisdon</a><a class="bodl" href="#community">Community - Hazel Blears</a><a class="bodl" href="#nireland">N Ireland - Shaun Woodward</a><a class="bodl" href="#transport">Transport - Geoff Hoon</a><a class="bodl" href="#treasury">Treasury - Yvette Cooper</a><a class="bodl" href="#work">Work & Pensions - James Purnell</a><a class="bodl" href="#wales">Wales - Paul Murphy</a><a class="bodl" href="#scotland">Scotland - Jim Murphy</a>

<a name="pm"></a> Prime Minister - Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown became prime minister in June 2007 at the age of 56, having been the chancellor throughout Tony Blair's 10 years in power.

Although the two men were inextricably linked after being elected as Labour MPs in the early 1980s, their relationship changed when, in a much commented on, but never explicitly confirmed, deal struck in a London restaurant in 1994 Mr Brown agreed to give Mr Blair a clear run at the Labour leadership in return for a promise that he would step down and hand over power to Mr Brown at a later date.

Despite their public togetherness, especially at election times, there were frequent tensions between the two camps behind closed doors.

Mr Brown's decade as chancellor - the longest in modern times - also witnessed a steady transformation in Mr Brown's image from a studious bachelor to a happy family man with two children.

Chancellor of the Exchequer - Alistair Darling

Alistair Darling, appointed chancellor in June 2007, has long been close politically to Gordon Brown, but rose steadily through the ranks under Tony Blair.

His previous role had been in trade and industry, and before that, he took on the sensitive transport portfolio when Stephen Byers resigned.

He was also responsible for delivering Labour's social security reforms during a spell in charge of the Department of Work and Pensions.

In each of those jobs he has been considered a safe pair of hands - often portrayed as a competent, if rather dull, minister by the media - and has been rewarded each time with promotion.

<a name="justice"></a> Secretary of State for Justice - Jack Straw

Regarded in Westminster as a competent and reliable minister and one of the better Commons performers in the Cabinet, Jack Straw became the justice secretary in June 2007.

It was a step back up for Mr Straw, who ran Gordon Brown's Labour leadership campaign, having been demoted from foreign secretary to Leader of the Commons in Tony Blair's post-local elections reshuffle a year earlier.

He had become Foreign Secretary in 2001, but was somewhat overshadowed in the immediate aftermath of the 11 September suicide attacks on the US by Tony Blair's "shuttle diplomacy". He was seen to have grown into the job during the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

Mr Straw spent Labour's first term as a tough-talking home secretary, dealing with the Pinochet affair and his party's determination to be "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime".

Chief Whip - Nick Brown

One of Gordon Brown's closest allies - and often blamed by Blairites for briefing against Tony Blair at the height of the tension between the two camps - Nick Brown returns the to the role of chief whip he filled when Labour was elected in 1997. He was moved to agriculture minister in 1998, reportedly as a "punishment" for cooperating with a biography of Mr Brown by Mirror journalist Paul Routledge. He certainly had a torrid time in the brief, coming in for some very personal attacks by members of the farming community during the 2001 foot and mouth crisis. He returned to the backbenches but remained close to Gordon Brown, reportedly playing a role in Mr Brown's behind-the-scenes campaign to succeed Mr Blair as PM. In her recent autobiography, Cherie Blair describes him as a "bit of a political thug". A consummate political fixer, who before entering politics worked as slogan writer for soap powder giant Proctor and Gamble writing and a legal adviser to the GMB union, Mr Brown is likely to come down hard on any backbench dissenters.<a class="bodl" href="#top">Back to top</a>

Leader of the House of Commons - Harriet Harman

Harriet Harman is considered one of the great survivors of modern politics, having steadily rebuilt her career since being sacked from Tony Blair's first Cabinet in 1998.

She returned to the government in 2001 as the first female solicitor general and took on greater responsibilities four years later as constitution affairs minister, seeking to tackle issues that included reversing voter apathy.

She narrowly won a six-way battle to be elected Labour's deputy leader in June 2007, at the age of 56. New leader Gordon Brown immediately appointed her as party chair in place of Hazel Blears.

Often portrayed as an ardent Brownite, her deputy leadership campaign made much of the fact that she served as Mr Brown's deputy when Labour were in opposition.

Culture, Media and Sport Secretary - Andy Burnham

Andy Burnham was appointed after the mini-reshuffle of January 2008 following Peter Hain's resignation.

He first entered the Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury at the age of 37 when Gordon Brown took office in June 2007.

His previous posts include junior health and immigration minister. He has also been Parliamentary Private Secretary to former Home Secretary David Blunkett and has worked as a researcher for Tessa Jowell.

The Merseyside-educated Cambridge graduate has spent virtually his entire working life with the Labour Party, aside from a brief spell as parliamentary officer of the NHS Confederation.

Secretary of State for Defence - John Hutton

Before becoming defence secretary, John Hutton became the first incumbent of the newly-formed business, enterprise and regulatory reform department (replacing the old Department of Trade and Industry) in Gordon Brown's first Cabinet, in June 2007.

He is the most ultra-Blairite minister in the Brown Cabinet, and was reported to have had a number of disputes with Mr Brown during the two years he was work and pensions secretary.

The former law lecturer had joined the Cabinet in mid-2005, as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, 13 years after becoming an MP in 1992.

When Labour came to power in 1997, he became a parliamentary private secretary to Margaret Beckett before joining the government as a junior health minister in 1998 and remaining with that department until 2005.

His hobbies include military history and he recently published a book on the experiences of King's Own Royal Lancasters during the First World War.

International Development Secretary - Douglas Alexander

Douglas Alexander moved to the Department for International Development in June 2007 at the age of 39 after a year as transport secretary, a role which he had combined with that of Scottish secretary.

He joined the government after the 2001 general election, when he became minister for e-commerce at the Department of Trade and Industry.

In June 2003 he also took on the role of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and was given the junior role of Europe minister in the 2006 reshuffle.

The Paisley South MP is a professional politician, whose rise in Labour ranks has been relentless, from the moment he started to work as a researcher for Gordon Brown in 1990.

Energy and climate change - Ed Miliband

Ed Miliband has long been a member of Gordon Brown's inner circle of special advisers. He was previously the parliamentary secretary at the Cabinet Office.

His older brother, David, is also in the Cabinet, as the foreign secretary, making them the first brothers to sit in the Cabinet for nearly 80 years.

At the age of 37, and only two years after becoming an MP, he was drafted into Gordon Brown's first Cabinet in June 2007, with responsibility for the beefed-up Cabinet Office, which co-ordinates policy between departments. He also had the job writing Labour's next election manifesto.

His latest promotion sees him take charge of a newly created department, taking over energy policy from DBERR and climate change from Defra.

Education: Children, Schools and Families - Ed Balls

Gordon Brown's closest political ally, Ed Balls was appointed to the newly-created position of schools and children secretary in June 2007 at the age of 40.

Gordon Brown's long-standing right-hand man, as his chief economics adviser at the Treasury, he entered Parliament as MP for Normanton at the 2005 general election.

He won his first ministerial post at the reshuffle in 2006, when he was made economic secretary to the Treasury.

It is the first Cabinet with a married couple, as Mr Balls's wife, Yvette Cooper, is also serving as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

Education: Innovation, Universities and Skills - John Denham

John Denham took over, at the age of 53, one of the new departments formed from the restructuring of the Department for Education and Skills in June 2007.

An MP for the last 15 years, he had most recently built himself a reputation as the influential chairman of the home affairs select committee in Parliament.

He had previously served as a Home Office minister, but was one of the three ministers to resign rather than back the government policy to go to war in Iraq.

Before entering Parliament in 1992 he had been a transport campaigner for Friends of the Earth, as well as campaigning with War on Want and being a councillor.

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary - Hilary Benn

Hilary Benn was moved from international development - a post he had held for five years - in Gordon Brown's new Cabinet in 2008, having enjoyed a rapid rise since being elected to Parliament in a by-election in 1999.

Politics is in Mr Benn's blood. He is the son of Tony Benn, the long-serving former Cabinet minister and icon of the Labour Left, while his grandfather and great-grandfathers were MPs, too.

He is used to answering questions about the influence on his political life of his famous father and describes himself as "a Benn, but not a Bennite", a reference to the fact that, unlike his father, he is a committed Labour moderniser.

Before his development and environment posts, Mr Benn had been a prisons minister. He stood in the Labour deputy leadership contest in June 2007, aged 53, but finished fourth out the six contenders.

Foreign Secretary - David Miliband

David Miliband was appointed foreign secretary in June 2007, becoming - at 41 -the youngest person to hold the post for 30 years.

He was promoted to the job after establishing his reputation while environment secretary at a time when "green" issues dominated British political debate. His promotion to one of the great offices of state appeared to justify his decision not to stand against Gordon Brown for the Labour leadership, as some diehard Blairites had urged.

An MP since 2001, he became school standards minister a year later before being promoted to Cabinet Office minister and then to communities and local government minister. Previously, he was head of Tony Blair's policy unit.

He is the son of an eminent left-wing academic and brother of another Cabinet member, Ed Miliband.

Secretary of State for Health - Alan Johnson

Alan Johnson is a former postman whose round famously used to include Dorneywood, which was the grace-and-favour country house in Buckinghamshire used by John Prescott when he was deputy prime minister.

He moved from education to health in June 2007, at the age of 57, having narrowly lost out to Harriet Harman in the election to be Labour's deputy leader.

He had been the first former union leader in four decades to become a Cabinet minister when he was given the post of work and pensions secretary in 2004.

And he took on education at a time when the government was struggling to persuade people of the merits of its secondary-school reforms, something he was widely seen as needing to do when Gordon Brown moved him to health.

Home Secretary - Jacqui Smith

Jacqui Smith became Britain's first female home secretary when she was appointed, aged 44, as John Reid's replacement in Gordon Brown's first Cabinet.

Within 24 hours, she was chairing a meeting of the government's emergency planning committee following a terror alert in central London.

Her promotion, in June 2007, was the latest in a series, marking a successful start to the former economics teacher's Westminster career since she her election as Redditch MP in 1997.

Within two years she was a junior minister, and went on to ministerial posts in health, trade and industry and education, before being appointed Chief Whip in 2006 under Tony Blair, where she gained a reputation for combining the right mix of charm and threats required to maintain Labour MPs' discipline during the final days of the Blair era.

Secretary of State for Business and Enterprise - Peter Mandelson

The comeback king of British politics, Mr Mandelson was drafted into government for the third time in a surprise move by Gordon Brown.

Credited, with Mr Brown and Tony Blair, as being a co-creator of New Labour, he was made trade secretary after New Labour swept to power, but was forced to quit in 1998 after The Guardian newspaper printed details of a secret loan of Â£373,000 from his ministerial colleague Geoffrey Robinson.

But in a move that shocked many in Westminster, he was brought back less than a year later by Mr Blair, as Northern Ireland Secretary. He was forced to quit a second time in January 2001 over allegations of misconduct over a passport application for Dome supporters, the Hinduja brothers.

In 2004, he was appointed EU Trade Commissioner where he continued to have a high profile, including differences with the French president.

He was called back into government by Gordon Brown - with whom he was believed to have had a long-running feud - in the October 2008 reshuffle.

Leader of the Lords - Baroness Royall of Blaisdon

Janet Royall was educated at the Royal Forest of Dean Grammar School and Westfield College, University of London, where she gained a BA in Spanish and French in 1977.

She was an adviser to Neil Kinnock in the 1980s and in 2003 became head of the European Commission Office in Wales.

A year later she became Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, in Gloucestershire, in 2004. She became chief whip in the Lords in 2008 and now takes over from Baroness Ashton as Leader of the House of Lords.

Communities and Local Government Secretary - Hazel Blears

Hazel Blears became communities secretary in Gordon Brown's first Cabinet in June 2007, at the age of 51, taking over from Ruth Kelly. She had previously been minister without portfolio and party chairman - a post she lost to Harriet Harman, who also beat her to become Labour Party deputy leader.

She first entered Cabinet after Labour's poor showing in the 2006 local elections, with the party suffering its biggest crisis since coming to power.

Ms Blears was a solicitor for several councils before becoming an MP in 1997.

She has worked as a parliamentary private secretary for Alan Milburn and Andrew Smith, and was parliamentary under-secretary in the Department of Health before being promoted to minister for policing and crime reduction in 2003, responsible for introducing the controversial anti-social behaviour orders and police reform.

Northern Ireland Secretary - Shaun Woodward

A defector from the Conservative Party who was once said to be the only Labour MP with a butler, Shaun Woodward took on Northern Ireland in the June 2007 reshuffle at the age of 48.

As a Tory, he oversaw PR activities at Conservative Central Office and was a front-bench opposition spokesman under William Hague.

But he was sacked in 1999 for supporting the repeal of Section 28, which prevented the promotion of homosexual lifestyles in schools, and then switched allegiances.

He was appointed under-secretary for Northern Ireland in 2005 and later held the same position at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, with responsibilities for the switchover to digital TV.

Transport Secretary - Geoff Hoon

Geoff Hoon's return to prominence within the government gathered pace when Gordon Brown promoted him to transport secretary in his 2008 reshuffle, a year after bringing him back into the Cabinet.

The former defence secretary, who held that post during the US-led invasion of Iraq, was moved to the job of Commons leader in 2005, following a period during which he had been a fairly central figure in the Hutton inquiry that followed the death of MoD scientist Dr David Kelly.

In 2006, he was moved out of the Cabinet to become Europe minister, but returned when Mr Brown became Labour leader, as Chief Whip, at the age of 53.

Originally a barrister, and an MEP until 1994, Mr Hoon has long been a strong supporter of labour modernisation, and is one of the most pro-European ministers in the government.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury - Yvette Cooper

Yvette Cooper - one half of the Cabinet's first married couple with children schools secretary Ed Balls - became Chief Secretary to the Treasury in the January 2008 mini-reshuffle prompted by Peter Hain's resignation.

A Scottish-born former Independent journalist, she became MP for Pontefract and Castleford in 1997 after stints as an economic researcher for Labour leader John Smith and adviser to US President Bill Clinton.

She has three young children and splits her time between the family homes in north London and West Yorkshire.

She had a rough ride in her former role as housing minister, where she had the job of launching the controversial Home Information Packs (HIPs) scheme.

Work and Pensions Secretary - James Purnell

James Purnell moved from Culture, Media and Sport in January 2008 after Peter Hain resigned following an investigation into donations to his deputy leadership campaign.

An MP since 2001, Mr Purnell worked as one of Tony Blair's researchers when Neil Kinnock was Labour leader. He was also previously part of the policy unit at No 10 and the Institute for Public Policy Research.

At the age of 25, in 1995, he became head of corporate planning at the BBC before moving on to be special adviser on sport, media and culture for Tony Blair from 1997-2001.

After his election to Westminster, he sat on the work and pensions committee. In 2004, he became a government whip, and was later appointed parliamentary under-Secretary of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, then a pensions minister.

Welsh Secretary - Paul Murphy

Paul Murphy became Secretary of State for Wales in Gordon Brown's January 2008 cabinet reshuffle, replacing Peter Hain.

Mr Murphy has been MP for Torfaen, south Wales, since 1987 and has been Welsh secretary before, from 1999 to 2002.

He then took the Northern Ireland portfolio until 2005, before returning to Labour's back benches.

Born in 1948 and educated in Pontypool and at Oxford University, Mr Murphy has been a party member since he was 15.

Scottish Secretary - Jim Murphy

East Renfrewshire MP Jim Murphy has been appointed as the new Scottish secretary.

The 41-year-old was elected to parliament in 1997 and he succeeds Des Browne, who was also defence secretary.

Mr Murphy was born in Glasgow and lived in South Africa as a teenager. He is a season ticket holder at Celtic Football Club and captains the parliamentary football team.