Profiles of Gordon’s five new talents

Daily Telegraph/UK
L30/06/2007

Sir Alan West

Some recruits to Gordon Brown’s new-style, non-partisan Government
share one thing – a record of fierce criticism of the previous
administration.

Admiral Sir Alan West, the former First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval
Staff, has spent much of the last 12 months turning his guns on Labour.

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Just before he stood down as head of the Navy last year, Sir Alan, a
war hero whose ship was sunk in the Falklands conflict, warned that
cuts to the service under Labour would make it incapable of protecting
Britain’s coastline.

"I don’t think anything should ever be sacred but we do have to be
careful that we do not reduce the Navy to a level that makes recovery
difficult," he warned.

Last December, he told The Sunday Telegraph that the Ministry of
Defence’s lack of investment could turn Britain’s Armed Forces into a
"tinpot gendarmerie" incapable of defending the nation’s interests.

"I suppose we could retire to our island and hope that no one gets to
us," he said.

And as recently as April, he condemned the decision to allow Royal Navy
hostages held by Iran to sell their stories.

"It does leave a slightly tacky taste in one’s mouth. It is not good,"
he said.

Sir Alan, 59, joined up before his 18th birthday and spent most of his
career at sea, serving in 14 different ships and commanding three of
them. In the successful retaking of the Falklands, his ship, the
frigate Ardent, was sunk. He was subsequently awarded the Distinguished
Service Cross and led the Victory Parade through the City of London.

Knighted in the Millennium New Year’s Honours List, he was First Sea
Lord from 2002 until last year.

By Brendan Carlin

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Sir Digby Jones

A big, bluff Brummie, Sir Digby Jones has put aside past criticisms of
Labour to enter Gordon Brown’s big tent as a peer and trade promotion
minister.

In 2002, the then CBI director-general was so critical of the
Government that Margaret Thatcher bumped into him and said: "I know
you, you’re the official opposition."

In March 2000 he said: "I have to say that [reassuring business] is not
even on [Brown’s] radar and that worries me considerably."

Three years later, Sir Digby, 51, savaged Labour over pensions policy
and business taxes, and spoke of a "seam of discontent" among business
leaders which the Tories could capitalise on.

But at the CBI from 2000 to 2006 he built a good relationship with Mr
Brown.

Last December, Sir Digby was appointed "skills envoy" for the
Government but felt no need to pull his punches. In January, he said
standards of adult literacy were a "national disgrace".

He began his career at corporate law firm Edge & Ellison in 1978,
becoming a partner in 1984, and made a name for himself in corporate
finance and client development.

Labour sees him as proof of Mr Brown’s desire to reach out beyond
traditional politics.

The appointment is also designed to upset the Tories on the flimsy
basis that Labour thinks every businessman has voted Conservative since
birth.

But Sir Digby, who was of no known political affiliation, has
disappointed his new colleagues by refusing to join the Labour Party.
He will be bound by the Labour whip in the Lords in an arrangement
described by one Labour MP last night as "odd".

By Brendan Carlin

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Shriti Vadera

If Alastair Campbell was Tony Blair’s real deputy, Shriti Vadera has
been the real number two at the Treasury.

But rather than remain the power behind the throne, the publicity-shy
former investment banker has entered the limelight by becoming an
international development minister.

The Tories said her appointment showed that Gordon Brown, like Mr
Blair, hands jobs to "cronies".

But relief agencies and charities were pleased by the arrival of Miss
Vadera, the brains behind many of the Government’s flagship policies
for Africa and debt relief.

Oxfam, where she was a trustee, lauded her "extremely strong commitment
to poverty eradication and international development".

Miss Vadera, 44, was born on the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda to
an Indian family. She came to the UK in 1974 and read politics,
philosophy and economics at Somerville College, Oxford, where Margaret
Thatcher and Indira Gandhi studied.

She has a formidable reputation and is said to be capable of reducing
junior officials to quivering wrecks.

After 14 years at the investment bank UBS Warburg, she joined the
Treasury in 1999 and became as indispensable in advising Mr Brown as
the better-known Ed Balls.

Miss Vadera was involved in the renationalisation of Railtrack and the
part-privatisation of the London Underground.

She dismissed Railtrack shareholders as "grannies" who had "added no
value to the company", which came to light during the investors’ High
Court case against the Government.

By Brendan Carlin and Martin Beckford

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Ara Darzi

The surgeon drafted into the Brown government to help boost the NHS is
one of Britain’s leading experts in keyhole surgery.

But Sir Ara Darzi has already crossed swords with ministers,
recommending in vain two years ago that two hospitals in Hartlepool and
Stockton should remain open.

Sir Ara, 47, has pioneered techniques for making operations less
invasive, including surgery for cancer patients.

Already a government adviser on the NHS, Sir Ara, who was born in
Armenia, has taught minimal access surgery at the Royal College of
Surgeons and set national guidelines for education and training in this
area.

He pledged to stay on the "front line" and said that it was a
"privilege and honour" to be able to work in Gordon Brown’s
administration.

Sir Ara said yesterday that he would work from Monday to Thursday as a
health minister – although he is paid for just three days.

He will work for free as an NHS surgeon on Fridays. The professor is
the current holder of the Paul Hamlyn Chair of Surgery at Imperial
College London, where he is head of surgery, oncology, reproductive
biology and anaesthetics.

He is also honorary consultant surgeon at St Mary’s Hospital and The
Royal Marsden Hospital in London. Sir Ara’s team has developed the use
of surgical robots and image-guided surgery, and he has called for more
research in this area. In 2001, his team won a Queen’s Anniversary
Prize in recognition of their achievements in pioneering techniques and
in addressing training requirements.

Sir Ara said of his appointment: "My career has been dedicated to
improving the health of patients.

`It is a great honour and privilege to be asked by the Prime Minister
to continue that work for patients across the country. `

By Brendan Carlin

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Lord Stevens

Since retiring from the most senior police job in the country two years
ago, Lord Stevens has never been busier.

The 64-year-old peer and former commissioner of the Metropolitan Police
has headed both the Operation Paget inquiry into the circumstances
surrounding the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and the Premier
League investigation into alleged football bungs.

Now "Captain Beaujolais", as he is nicknamed because of his love for
fine wines and vintage champagne, will bring his wealth of experience
to Gordon Brown’s government.

Born in Kent, educated at boarding school in Ramsgate, he began his
policing career in Hammersmith, west London where he received no less
than 27 commendations for his detective work. Top postings with
regional forces followed. He was appointed commissioner in 2000,
receiving a knighthood in the process.

Admired by his fellow officers he was regarded as a "copper’s copper"
and was universally popular.

With a reputation for outspokeness, he has never been afraid of
delivering unpalatable truths and has been entrusted with several of
the most sensitive and high-profile inquires. These included the
investigation, begun in 1989, of collusion by the Royal Ulster
Constabulary and loyalist terrorists in the murders of republicans in
Northern Ireland. The longest and most complex such investigation in
British history, it resulted in some 98 convictions.

His relations with Labour politicans have not always gone smoothly. He
accused David Blunkett, then Home Secretary, of being anti-police and
was furious when reports that Mr Blunkett had given him a "real
roasting" appeared in the media. He laid the blame at Home Secretary’s
door. "There were only three people in that office – myself, the Home
Secretary and his dog," he wrote in his autobiography. "And it [the
leak] didn’t come from the dog".

By Caroline Davies