John Smith 1938-1994:: Donald Macintyre and Patricia Wynn Davies assess the potential contenders for the Labour leadership: Tony Blair, 41

Current post: shadow Home Secretary

Born in Edinburgh, the son of a law lecturer, he was educated at Fettes College and Oxford, and later qualified as a barrister. A devoted family man - married to a barrister, Cherie, daughter of the actor Anthony Booth - he enjoys a growing reputation as a rising star of the 'modernising' wing of the party.

Widely tipped as the leadership candidate who would attract heavy support from the public, if they had a say, he has displayed solid and intelligent mastery of his home affairs brief - 'tough on crime, tough on the causes'. He broke with years of Labour tradition by deciding against outright opposition to the Criminal Justice Bill now going through Parliament, and acted as broker in the parliamentary furore over the perceived link between video violence and juvenile crime.

During his previous, highly successful, role as a employment spokesman, he knocked into shape a dangerously creaky policy on trade unions.

His emergence from beneath the one-time shadow of Gordon Brown has seen him thoughtfully developing a philosophical platform for the 1990s. One of his most significant speeches came last year in the Arnold Goodman charity lecture when he threw down the gauntlet to Labour 'traditionalists' over the so-called betrayal of socialist principles. Modernising was about retrieving Labour's most basic beliefs - in community values, not just class or outdated economic ideas - he declared. He belongs to the soft-left Tribune group of MPs.

Supporters say would make ideal Labour leader, unhampered by obsolete dogma. He has relatively few enemies, but his age and youthful appearance remain a nagging concern.

(Photograph omitted)