The new foreign trade minister is an established figure at the heart of the New Labour project.

Douglas Alexander will welcome the role as an opportunity to gain valuable foreign affairs experience ahead of his seemingly inevitable rise into the Cabinet.

But he will regret losing his role as election campaign co-ordinator to his replacement as chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Alan Milburn.

Like his mentor Gordon Brown, the 36 year-old Paisley South MP is the son of a reverend.

He was educated at Park Mains High School in Renfrewshire, Lester Pearson College in Vancouver, and the universities of Edinburgh and Pennsylvania.

He worked as a press assistant on the Democrat Michael Dukakis' presidential campaign in 1988.

A parliamentary researcher for Brown during 1990-91, he then went on to work as a solicitor until his victory in a by-election in September, 1997.

His maiden speech focused on the merits of the minimum wage.

Before his by-election victory Alexander contested the Perth and Kinross by-election in 1995 and Perth at the 1997 general election.

Following re-election in 2001 he was appointed minister for e-commerce and competitiveness at the DTI and moved to the Cabinet Office a year later.

A political obsessive, he was Labour's general election co-ordinator during the 2001 poll and a key figure in the Scottish parliament referendum and election campaigns.

Alexander is a member of the Muir Society of Socialist and Radical Lawyers and co-author of New Scotland, New Britain, published in 1999.

He is married to Jacqueline, has a young son and enjoys running and angling.