London - British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said on Wednesday that Education Secretary Charles Clarke will take over the crucial law and order portfolio after Home Secretary David Blunkett quit the post.
Ruth Kelly, minister for the cabinet office, will replace Clarke and head up the education brief, the government said.
David Miliband will replace Kelly at the cabinet office. The moves - months ahead of an expected general election - came after Blunkett resigned following charges he fast-tracked the visa for the nanny of a former lover.
Blunkett has gained a reputation for being tough and plain-speaking. He has fought to bring in what critics see as draconian anti-terror laws and horrified some when he said the suicide of serial killer Harold Shipman in prison should be toasted with a glass of champagne.
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| Blunkett has gained a reputation for being tough and plain-speaking |
Blind since birth, Blunkett uses Braille and has a guide dog called Sadie who sleeps at his feet in the House of Commons. He made his name in politics as a radical, left-wing Labour councillor in his home town of Sheffield in northern England and entered Parliament in 1987.
Blunkett was born on June 6, 1947. When he was 11 his father, an local gas board employee, fell into a vat of boiling water at work and died after an agonising month in hospital.
A 20-year marriage ended in divorce in 1990, and Blunkett has hit the headlines with a court battle to gain access to the son of married former lover Kimberley Quinn with whom he had a three year affair and whose child he claims as his own. He has three sons from his marriage.
Blunkett was education secretary in Prime Minister Tony Blair's first administration, charged with delivering on his boss's declared top priority of "education, education, education".
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