The son of a Labour MP, Ian McCartney is a Scot with a Lancashire seat, who has been described as "open, outspoken, and over-excited". He was promoted by Tony Blair in his 1999 reshuffle to be no.2 to the government's 'enforcer', Mo Mowlam. The cabinet office team co-ordinates and presents government policy and is also charged with looking into the modernisation of public services. In addition Mr McCartney has responsibility for co-ordinating the government's arrangements for the Commonwealth Games in 2002. As a junior minister at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) he was involved in negotiating the level at which to fix the National Minimum Wage and the minimum percentage required in ballot for statutory union recognition to be granted. He has been opposition spokesman on health, and unemployment, and has had a Labour party NEC seat since 1996. He claims to have led a strike at the age of 14 and describes himself, in Who's Who, as coming from "a family of proud working class stock".