Dame Pauline was the first woman to chair the Joint Intelligence Committee, the body that scrutinises intelligence reports from MI5 and MI6.

She was also John Major's foreign affairs adviser and the former Director of Political Affairs at the Foreign Office, as well as being a former governor of the BBC.

She was a foreign office diplomat for more than 30 years, rising to be political director and deputy under-secretary, acting as senior UK negotiator at the Dayton peace talks which brought the Bosnian war to an end in 1995.

Dame Pauline was born in 1939 and attended school in Leeds before taking an arts degree at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She was brought into the shadow cabinet by Tory leader David Cameron as shadow security minister. She also acts as Mr Cameron's national security adviser.