Blair Continues Ministerial Appointments

Tony Banks is to be Minister for Sport. Mr Banks is a passionate Chelsea supporter and ferocious enemy of fox hunting. He also once severely embarrassed former Labour leader Neil Kinnock by calling for the legalising of soft drugs. Since he was elected in 1987, Mr Banks has earned a reputation for using spectacular language in the House of Commons. Following his suprise appointment he described himself as "gobsmacked".

Stephen Byers, MP for Tyneside North, has been appointed Minister of State for Education, in charge of school standards. Mr Byers has had a successful career in local government in the North East and became spokesman on industrial relations and the social chapter in the last re-shuffle before the election. Last year Mr Byers was reported to have leaked to journalists that Labour intended to end its links with the unions after the election.

Tessa Jowell, a close ally of Tony Blair, has been rewarded with the position of health minister, a job that she shadowed. A former child care officer and social worker, she became the assistant director of MIND, the mental health charity, while pursuing a political career as a councillor in Camden.She became MP for Dulwich in 1992 and an opposition whip in 1994.

Health Minister: Alun Milburn

Alun Milburn, MP for Darlington, has also been appointed a health minister. He was a shadow health spokesman before joining Gordon Brown's shadow Treasury team last year. Mr Milburn is a keen advocate of regional government and has written several books about the regeneration of the North.

Other appointments include:

• Baroness Blackstone, former lecturer and founder of the left-wing think tank, the independent Institute for Public Policy Research, becomes Education Minister of State in charge of further and higher education.
• Adam Ingram formerly the opposition science spokesman and Paul Murphy in opposition the defence spokesman are appointed as Northern Ireland Ministers of State.
• Henry McLeishwho formerly shadowed social security is now Scottish Office Minister of State.
• Dr John Reid becomes Defence Minister of State, a position he shadowed.
• Derek Fatchett, a frontbencher for nearly ten years and Tony Lloyd become Foreign Office Ministers of State.
• Alun Michael formerly of the shadow home affairs team and Joyce Quin Robin Cook's former deputy have been appointed as Home Office Ministers of State.
• John Battle and Ian McCartney are Trade and Industry Ministers of State
• Dick Caborn and Hilary Armstrong are now Environment and Transport Ministers of State
• Geoff Hoon is now Junior Minister at the Lord Chancellor's Department
• Peter Hain is Minister for Wales
• Dawn Primarolo now becomes Financial Secretary at the Treasury, the position she shadowed.
• Brian Wilson is minister for education and industry in Scotland.
• Sam Galbraith becomes a junior Scottish Office Minister.
• Angela Eagle, whose twin sister Maria has now joined her in the Commons, becomes at the age of only 36 a junior Minister at the Department of Environment.
• Glenda Jackson becomes a junior minister at the Department of Environment and Transport
• Nick Raynsford, a specialist in housing matters, becomes a junior member of the Environment and Transport ministerial team.
• Barbara Roche is a junior Minister at the Department of Trade and Industry.

Ministerial appointments over the weekend include the little known Doug Henderson (Newcastle upon Tyne, North) as the prestigious Minister for Europe.

Mr Henderson has flown out to Brussels to take the first steps towards the Labour Government signing up to the Social Chapter. An athlete with several marathons under his belt, Mr Henderson is little known beyond Westminster.

Multi-millionaire Geoffrey Robinson (Coventry North West) was appointed Paymaster General at the Treasury. Mr Robinson, a former Jaguar chief executive, will have special responsibility for the Private Finance Initiative.

Helen Liddell

Helen Liddell (Airdrie and Shotts), the woman who succeeded the late Labour leader John Smith as Monklands East MP was appointed Minister of State at the Treasury.

Ms Liddell worked for several years for the late publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell and is also a former Scottish Labour Party secretary. She was a Scottish affairs spokeswoman before the election.

Tony Blair has headhunted a lawyer, Charles Falconer QC, who's an old colleague, and persuaded him to give up his high salary to become Solicitor General. There had been reports that the lack of high-level legal experience in the Labour frontbench team might have caused a gap in the ministerial list when they got into power. Mr Falconer, 45, a barrister of the Inner Temple, will be made a life peer in the House of Lords so that he can take up the post. He will join John Morris, who becomes Attorney-General, a role he shadowed.

Mr Blair appointed Robert Ainsworth, Graham Allen, James Dowd, John McFall and Jon Owen Jones as senior whips. Clive Betts, David Clelland, Kevin Hughes, David Jamieson, Jane Kennedy, Greg Pope and Bridget Prentice are junior whips.

See also Newly-Appointed Ministers and Tony Blair's first Cabinet