A civil servant involved in the visa row that forced David Blunkett to resign was appointed by Tony Blair yesterday to head the government's anti-terrorism strategy.

Bill Jeffrey's promotion to security and intelligence co-ordinator comes after two years as director general of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate.

Jeffrey will run counter-terrorism and crisis management work across Whitehall, and succeeds Sir David Omand who retires at Easter.

The prime minister said that his new post was one of the most important in the government, adding: "Bill is an extremely talented official with huge experience of government and he is well equipped to make a success of this post."