Hilary Benn was appointed parliamentary under-secretary in the department for international development, in the new government announced by Prime Minister Tony Blair following this year's general election.
Mr Benn recently said that the 500 tonnes of World Food Programme aid being driven into Afghanistan has now risen to 1,700 tonnes, the UN daily target.
The son of veteran left-winger Tony Benn, Mr Benn graduated from Sussex University. He has described himself as "a Benn, and proud of it, but not a Bennite."
He was Labour member of Ealing Council (1979-99), the youngest ever chair of education and deputy leader of Ealing Council (1986-90). He contested Ealing North in the 1983 and 1987 general elections.
He is the former head of policy and communications for the trade union MSF.
He was special adviser to the then secretary of state for education and employment David Blunkett (1997-99) and has been MP for Leeds Central since 1999 after a narrow victory on an extremely low turnout.
While a backbencher, he contributed with other party modernisers to a book advocating radical policies for a second term Labour government.
