Last week Mr Bradshaw said that Osama Bin Laden's al Qaida organisation probably has its own chemical and biological weapons. But he said there is unlikely to be any specific and immediate threat to the UK because it is thought the terrorists do not have the means to utilise the weapons.

Mr Bradshaw was educated at the University of Sussex.

Before becoming an MP he was a reporter for two local newspapers and a reporter and correspondent at the BBC. He first worked in local radio before becoming the BBC correspondent in Berlin (1989-91), covering the fall of the Berlin wall and German unification. He went on to become a reporter for BBC Radio 4's World at One and World This Weekend programmes (1991-97) and has been MP for Exeter since 1997.

He was parliamentary secretary to the then health minister John Denham MP before joining the foreign office this year.

He was consumer journalist of the year 1988, Anglo-German foundation journalist of the year 1990 and won the Sony news reporter award in 1993.

Mr Bradshaw's main policy interests are foreign affairs and environmental issues.