DIGBY TO THE LORDS, BYRNE GETS WEST MIDS ROLE

29-06-2007

Birmingham lawyer Sir Digby Jones has accepted a peerage under the Labour whip, and will become Minister for Trade Promotion, as part of Gordon Brown’s attempt to bring outsiders into government. Meanwhile Hodge Hill MP Liam Byrne will take the newly created post of Minister for the West Midlands.

Jones made his name working for Birmingham legal practice Edge Ellison, opening their successful London office, before becoming Director General of the CBI in 2001.

He quit that role in 2006, and now acts as senior advisor to a numbers of major firms including Barclays, Deloitte and JCB.

He has also been acting as a government skills envoy, promoting engineering and literacy - but when he was invited to take the position he stressed that his role would not be party political.

Indeed, in April he told Birmingham Chamber of Commerce that Labour would regret forcing Tony Blair to quit, and he said that his first advice to Brown, a personal friend, would be to call an election.

He said: “On the Saturday he becomes Prime Minister, he should promise to withdraw troops from Iraq within 12 months.

"On the Monday, he should remove private houses from inheritance tax.

"And on the Tuesday he should call an election. He’d win it too.” (To read the article in full click here)