Former CBI director to join Blair's policy team

Four senior figures from the world of business were appointed by Tony Blair yesterday to the so-called Downing Street "blue sky" policy team headed by the former BBC director general, Lord Birt.

The latest recruits to Mr Blair's forward strategy unit are Adair Turner, the former director general of the Confederation of British Industry, Penny Hughes, the ex-president of Coca-Cola in the UK, Nick Lovegrove, a partner at the management consultants McKinsey and Arnab Banerji, the chief investment officer at F&C Management Limited.

The unit was set up by the Prime Minister after Labour's general election victory in June with a brief to "think blue-sky thoughts" about long-term, future policies.

The four part-time advisers, who will be unpaid, will work with Lord Birt, who is in overall charge of several of the unit's projects.

The appointments reflect Mr Blair's "big tent" policy of drawing on talents from beyond Labour's ranks. But the move will worry some Labour traditionalists, who complain that Mr Blair is already too close to the business world and has sidelined the party's trade union founders.

Asked if any trade unionists were part of the unit, the Prime Minister's spokesman replied: "I don't know."

The spokesman insisted that people from a variety of backgrounds were involved, adding: "We are keen to bring in different people with particular expertise to look at some of the long-term issues."

Announcing the appointments yesterday, Number 10 highlighted the careers of the business figures.

It described Ms Hughes as "one of the UK's outstanding business leaders", adding: "Her rapid rise at Coca-Cola UK Ltd and her subsequent business career is testimony to her outstanding management and leadership qualities."

Ms Hughes, who became Coca-Cola's UK president at the age of 33 in 1993, left two years later to develop her portfolio of interests. She is now a non-executive director of Vodaphone, Enodis (formerly Beresford), Trinity Mirror and SEB, a Swedish bank.

Mr Turner, who headed the CBI from 1995 to 1999, is now vice-chairman of Merrill Lynch Europe and a director of United Business Media and Netscalibur. He is a former "McKinsey man" who worked for the management consultants from 1982-1995, rising to become a director.

Mr Lovegrove has been a consultant with McKinsey for 18 years. He currently heads the firm's telecoms, media and technology practice in the UK and its worldwide media and entertainment division.

Dr Banerji is chairman of group investment policy, strategy and research at F&C, which manages $100bn of funds, and also chairs the group's subsidiary F&C Emerging Markets.

The Forward Strategy Unit is headed by Geoff Mulgan, a former Blair policy aide who is now a civil servant and also runs the performance and innovation unit, which has been described as Mr Blair's personal think tank.

Privately, ministers concede the new structure at Downing Street is still bedding down. Fears that Number 10 will duplicate the work of the Cabinet Office under John Prescott, who is responsible for co-ordinating government policy, are to be investigated this autumn by the Commons Public Administration Committee.