Mo Mowlam has a quality most politicians would give their right arm to share - she is seen by voters as "one of us".
She speaks her mind - a characteristic usually lacking in politicians, particularly ambitious ones. Her controversial views on cannabis and the Royal family were a constant embarrassment to the government.
She is never seen revelling in the trappings of power. And - to the great embarrassment of hardened politicians like Ian Paisley - she has a tendency to hug and kiss.
She is almost universally admired in Westminster and persistently wins the award as Britain's most loved politician - albeit from a tiny field.
Much of her popularity with voters, it has to be said, is a result of her determined battle against cancer and her perceived success in negotiating peace in Northern Ireland.
Before those two events you would be hard pushed to find a voter who knew who she was.
Standing ovation
But, once she became high-profile, it was her natural ability to be "ordinary" - in the best sense of the word - that endeared her to people.
You can't ever imagine Tony Blair wandering into your local pub, ordering a pint and quietly sitting in a corner to drink it. Mo not only does it, but manages to carry it off without making it look like a carefully-staged picture opportunity.
The downside to her popularity was that she regularly overshadowed her colleagues, even Tony Blair.
During his 1998 speech at Labour conference he made reference to the great work Mo was doing in Belfast, and was forced to stand back as she received an instant standing ovation - longer than the one he was given at the end of the speech.
And it was a brave politician who invited Mo to accompany him on a walkabout in his own constituency.
Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar did exactly that during the devolution campaign and witnessed Mo's popularity with voters first hand.
During a visit to one housing estate he was literally elbowed aside by voters desperate to reach Mo and shake her hand or give her a kiss and a hug.
Powerful enemies
Those who knew Mo before her illness remember the shock of discovering just how badly she had been affected. It was during one of Labour's big set piece stunts in 1997 that her illness became apparent.
Political journalists attending the event could not make out who the large woman sitting next to Jack Straw was.
When they worked out it was Mo, some - to their later embarrassment - ran off and wrote pieces about how she had let herself go. The next day she revealed she was fighting cancer.
Probably inevitably, her popularity brought problems and she made some powerful enemies in the government.
Anyone who works in Westminster knows that negative stories have been put around concerning her illness or her alleged inability to perform in a top job.
A forthcoming biography, by respected political journalist Julia Langdon, is said to point the finger at Peter Mandelson - who replaced Mo as Northern Ireland Secretary - and Tony Blair's chief of staff Jonathan Powell.
The book is due for publication around the time of the Labour conference later this month and it is being suggested Mo knew she had to go before she was sacked.
It is also clear that she was not going to be advanced further by Tony Blair.
He could never sack her for fear of a damaging backlash, but he was never going to give her another serious cabinet post.
While her detractors will undoubtedly be delighted at her decision, most Labour MPs and ordinary voters will be saddened that politics is losing one of its few genuinely independently-minded and "loveable" people.