Runner-up: Alan Johnson

Alan Johnson was the front-runner for the Labour deputy leadership and the clear choice of his fellow MPs. After losing the contest to Harriet Harman by a whisker, he is rewarded by being appointed to the crucial post of Health Secretary.

His brief will be to restore public confidence in Labour's handling of the health service. Opinion polls have shown that, despite substantial investment in health, the Tories are more trusted to run hospitals.

Mr Johnson, a former trades union leader renowned for his genial manner, will also attempt to repair the fractious relationship between the Government and nurses' leaders. He is taking up his fourth cabinet post in three years and was briefly touted as a possible challenger to Gordon Brown for the Labour leadership.

Mr Johnson, 57, has the most impeccable working-class credentials in the Cabinet. Brought up as an orphan by his elder sister and leaving school in west London without qualifications, he ended up stacking supermarket shelves and became a postman at the age of 18. By that time he was married with two children.

He was soon active in trades unionism and worked his way through the ranks to become general secretary of the Union of Communication Workers in 1993. By then he had ditched an earlier enthusiasm for militant activism for passionate support for modernising Labour.

As a result he became close to the party's new leader, Tony Blair, and was rewarded with a safe Labour seat in 1997.

Mr Johnson was in the government within two years and made his name as higher education minister, when he successfully led the battle to get university "top-up" fees on to the statute book. Last year Mr Blair made him Education Secretary.

Interesting? Click here to explore further