Stephen Byers: Trade and Industry

By BBC News Online's Ben Davies

There are modernisers, there are ultra-modernisers and then there is Stephen Byers.

He is a man whose star has definitely been in the ascendant under the patronage of Tony Blair.

He is so Blairite that some commentators have accused him of out-Blairing the prime minister.

Remember the seafood dinner in which he briefed lobby hacks that Labour would break all links with the unions?

Quick rise

Mr Byers took a while to get a seat at Westminster, largely because he lacked trade union sponsorship which is something of a must in the north east of England, but once he was there it was by the standards of British politics, a quick rise.

In under seven years from becoming an MP he was in the cabinet, prompting the inevitable speculation that he is Blair's natural successor - along with Chancellor Gordon Brown, of course.

Byers was criticised over his handling of the Rover debacle

All of that was before the Rover debacle which left workers at Longbridge fearing for their jobs after BMW made its shock decision to sell the British car manufacturer.

The trade secretary was inevitably a focus for angry, betrayed workers and there was suspicion as to when Mr Byers actually knew of the decision.

Blair-Brown, Byers-Milburn

Until then one of the favourite comparisons drawn by senior observers in the Westminster village was between Mr Byers and Health Secretary Alan Milburn, and Mr Blair and Mr Brown.

Mr Byers and Mr Milburn were elected in the same year (1992), were on the same wing of the party, were from the north east, shared an office and were great mates.

It's a situation that has uncanny similarities with the chancellor and the prime minister when they were first elected.

Some cynics, though, have suggested they are not so matey following a spat about who should run for the party leadership in 1994.

Until the Rover affair Mr Byers was ahead of Mr Milburn into the cabinet, though not by much and they both have high-powered jobs.

Mr Byers won his job at the DTI - after just six months in the cabinet - following Peter Mandelson's first resignation in the wake of the home loan scandal.

The 'faceless' minister came under pressure to ditch the moustache

The fairly "faceless" minister who ditched his moustache under pressure from partner Jan - and no doubt the New Labour style gurus - was said, in a Guardian poll in April 2000, to be one of the least favourably perceived members of the cabinet with a "low visibility factor".

Apart from the sale of Rover, where he was heavily criticised for not foreseeing that BMW would pull out of Longbridge, he was memorably tripped up on BBC Radio Five Live over his ignorance of the eight-times-table, while an education minister.

And, in his role as "outrider for the Blair project" he has asserted that "the reality is that redistribution of wealth is now less important than the creation of wealth".

Another role that he has taken has been to voice support for the single currency.

Eurofriendly

He has been one of the few Labour ministers prepared to speak out in favour of the euro.

Mr Byers was born in Wolverhampton and won a place at Chester City grammar leaving early to take his A-levels at a local college because he hated the school.

He went on to gain a law degree at Liverpool.

His background is as a law lecturer and as a councillor in Newcastle.

His father was a RAF technician and his partner, Jan, is a lawyer.