(U) PRIME MINISTER GORDON BROWN NAMES HIS CABINET

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 LONDON 002488 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/UBI, INR/EU E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/28/2017 TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR UK SUBJECT: (U) PRIME MINISTER GORDON BROWN NAMES HIS CABINET REF: A. LONDON 2473 ¶B. LONDON 2446 Classified By: PolCouns Richard Mills for reasons 1.4 (b, d) ¶1. (U) A day after taking over as Prime Minister, Gordon Brown has named his Cabinet. As expected, this is the biggest reshuffle since the Labour Party came to power in ¶1997. It includes several realignments, and has the maximum number of paid Cabinet Ministers permitted by law (22). While promoting several close allies, Brown has retained some capable supporters of his predecessor Tony Blair, including Foreign Secretary David Miliband, the subject of ref A. Initial reaction from the pundits is favorable: the process was well organized and the outcome manages both to convey a sense of a fresh start after ten years in power and to fulfill Brown's pledge to form a Government "of all the talents." The departure from the Cabinet of several women (including Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, Chancellor of the Duchy of SIPDIS Lancaster Hilary Armstrong, and Leader of the House of Lords Baroness Amos) is partially offset by the appointment of the first female Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith. Brown has not named a Deputy Prime Minister. Sub-Cabinet appointments to Her Majesty's Government are expected tomorrow, June 29. All members of the Government must be members of one or the other of the Houses of Parliament, therefore those listed below who are not Lords (Baronesses, in the case of women) are all MPs. ¶2. (C) THE CABINET: - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service - Gordon Brown. - Chancellor of the Exchequer - Alistair Darling. Like Brown, Darling is a Scot, and his path to taking on the difficult task of succeeding the most powerful Chancellor of recent times, was smoothed once another senior Scot in the Cabinet, John Reid, announced that he would step down when Blair did and not take another cabinet seat. (There had been grumblings in England about "too many Scots" at the top of the UK Government once Brown came to office.) Darling is seen as highly capable, experienced and reliable, and very discreet; he was once voted Britain's most boring politician. He has been in the Cabinet ever since Labour took power in 1997, first as Brown's deputy as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and then successively as Secretary of State for: Social Security; Work and Pensions; Transport, Scotland (concurrently with Transport),and Trade and Industry. - Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs - David Miliband. See reftel. - Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor - Jack Straw. A former Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary, Straw deftly threw his support to Brown last year and was his campaign manager for Leader of the Labour Party. Until yesterday Leader of the House of Commons, he was in charge of building cross-party support for reform to the House of Lords. He will now have the lead on constitutional reform. - Secretary of State for the Home Department - Jacqui Smith. Britain's first female Home Secretary. Promoted to the Cabinet in May 2006 as Chief Whip, she proved to be a "safe pair of hands" during a potentially tumultuous time when impatient Brownites and others were trying to force Blair out of office, believing that his unpopularity due to Iraq was hurting the party. Her unexpected appointment has attracted the most media comment and there has been some initial media pundit reaction that she may lack the necessary background for this important post. - Secretary of State for Defence and Secretary of State for Scotland - Des Browne. Browne, a Scot, was already Defence Secretary; he adds to his portfolio the Scotland account. SIPDIS - Secretary of State for Health - Alan Johnson. A former postman and general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, Johnson is the first union leader in 40 years to hold a Cabinet post. An effective and popular politician, he was the favorite to win election as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, but was narrowly defeated by Harriet Harman after five rounds of complex vote-allocation by the party's electoral college (ref B). Since entering Cabinet in 2004, he has successively headed the Departments of: Work and Pensions; Trade and Industry; and Education and Skills. Johnson's new job is highly sensitive: Brown says reform of the National LONDON 00002488 002 OF 003 Health Service is his "immediate priority." -Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - Hilary Benn. A sideways move from the Department for International Development. Benn can be expected to draw on the wide range of contacts he formed in his last job in order to promote global action on climate change. Widely esteemed as capable, sincere and nice, though he finished a disappointing fourth out of six in the race for Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, after a late start that forced him to scramble to get onto the ballot. - Secretary of State for International Development - Douglas Alexander. One of Brown's closest allies and proteges, Alexander is another Scot, just 40 this year. A lawyer by training, he studied for a year at the University of Pennsylvania. He served in a number of junior-minister posts, most recently Minister for Europe in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, before joining the Cabinet as Transport Secretary and Scotland Secretary in 2006. Brown has already SIPDIS announced that Alexander is also the Labour Party's general-election coordinator. - Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform - John Hutton. Very much a Blairite, but did a good job as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in the last Cabinet. His new position represents a rejigging of the Department of Trade and Industry. - Leader of the House of Commons, Lord Privy Seal, Minister for Women, and Labour Party Chair - Harriet Harman. The surprise winner of the tightly-contested race for Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Harman returns to the Cabinet after being demoted in 1998. She will manage the day-to-day work of the House of Commons. She is expected to focus much of her attention on liaison between the Government and the Labour Party. See also ref B. - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Secretary of State for Wales - Peter Hain. Despite finishing fifth (out of six) in the race for Deputy Leader, Hain remains in the Cabinet. He keeps Wales and shifts from the Northern Ireland Office to the Department for Work and Pensions. - Secretary of State for Transport - Ruth Kelly. Some pundits expected this Blairite to be dropped from the Cabinet after controversial tenures at Education then Communities and Local Government. Kelly may have benefited from the fact that several other female members of the Cabinet were leaving, including Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, Chancellor of the Duchy of SIPDIS Lancaster Hilary Armstrong, and Leader of the House of Lords Baroness Amos. - Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government - Hazel Blears. Previously known as a Blairite, she argued forcefully for party unity during the transition from Blair to Brown. Despite finishing last in the race for Deputy Leader, she reportedly won Brown's respect for resolutely defending the party line when other candidates veered to the left to curry favor with the party rank-and-file. - Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury, and Chief Whip - Geoff Hoon. A return to the Cabinet for the former Defence Secretary who was demoted to the sub-Cabinet post of Minister SIPDIS for Europe in the Foreign Office. - Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families - Ed Balls. Brown's alter ego in running the economy, and still only 40, Balls only became an MP in 2005 and this is his first Cabinet post. The ministerial responsibilities previously held by the Education Secretary are split: Balls will not have to deal with skills training, higher education and science. Brown sees high-quality education for all as the key to achieving his vision of Britain as "the great global success story of this century." He has pledged to increase spending-per-pupil in state schools to the current level in private schools. - Minister for the Cabinet Office, and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster - Ed Miliband. David Miliband's younger brother, age 37, with a similar reputation for intellect. A member of Brown's inner circle since 1994, Ed Miliband chaired the Council of Economic Advisers to the Chancellor from 2004 until being elected to Parliament in 2005. In 2002 he began a two-year stint teaching economics at Harvard. LONDON 00002488 003 OF 003 - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sports - James Purnell. He was the expert on cultural policy at Number 10 Downing Street before becoming an MP in 2001. Most recently a junior minister in the Department of Work and Pensions. Like David Miliband, he is a Blairite who advocated a smooth transition to Brown. - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland - Shaun Woodward. A defector from the Conservative Party in 1999; his seat then is now held by Conservative Leader David Cameron. Woodward's wife is heiress to the Sainsbury supermarket-chain fortune. - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council - Baroness Ashton of Upholland. Until now a junior minister in the Justice Department with the lead on human rights, European Union and international policy. - Chief Secretary to the Treasury - Andy Burnham. A member of Blair's policy unit until becoming an MP in 2001, he rose to be a junior minister in the Home Office in 2005 and has been effective in a sub-Cabinet posting at the Department of Health since 2006. - Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills: John Denham. He resigned his position as a junior minister in the Home Office in protest at the decision to go to war in Iraq, but did so quietly and with dignity. The same year he became chair of the Select Committee on Home Affairs. ¶3. (SBU) The following sub-Cabinet ministers will also attend Cabinet meetings: - Cabinet Minister for the Olympics and London - Tessa Jowell. A demotion: Jowell was Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sports. In that job she led HMG's multi-billion Pound efforts in support of the 2012 London Olympics, and will carry on with that assignment. - Minister for Children and Youth Justice: Beverley Hughes. A competent junior minister in several departments, most recently in the Department for Education. Remained loyal despite being forced to resign over an immigration fiasco when she was at the Home Office. - Lords Chief Whip and Captain of the Gentlemen at Arms: Lord Grocott. No change. - Attorney General: Baroness Scotland of Asthal. Until now a junior minister in the Home Office. She played an important constructive role in the successful effort to bring the U.S.-UK extradition treaty into force. Of Afro-Caribbean heritage, she is the only person of color attending Cabinet. - Minister for Housing - Yvette Cooper. Ed Balls's wife, highly regarded in her own right, sometimes tipped to be a future prime minister. She has been in charge of housing and will now attend Cabinet, reflecting the priority Brown attaches to increasing the availability of affordable housing in order to achieve his vision of a "property-owning democracy." - Minister for Africa, Asia and UN: Lord Malloch Brown. Was Kofi Annan's Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations. While in that role, he gave a speech in June 2006 criticizing "a decades-long tendency by U.S. Administrations of both parties to engage only fitfully with the UN," which he said was meant as "a sincere and constructive critique of U.S. policy towards the UN by a friend and admirer." - Parliamentary Private Secretaries to the Prime Minister: Ian Austin, Angela E. Smith. Austin is Brown's former press secretary; Smith has been a junior minister since 2002, most SIPDIS recently in the Department for Communities and Local Government. Visit London's Classified Website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/london/index. cfm TUTTLE