UFO Info Week-End

It was after all a job that Peter Mandelson – an intimate of Mr Blair but not a

It was, after all, a job that Peter Mandelson – an intimate of Mr Blair but not a fan of Mr Cook – was rumoured to covet. Before the election Mr Cook did all he could to bolster the position of Joyce Quin, Labour’s European spokeswoman. Another surprise was Sir David Simon, chairman of BP, as minister for European trade at the Department of Trade and Industry. Mr Cook had long suspected that his ability to pick his Europe minister at the Foreign Office might be threatened. His new job was first announced and then denied last weekend – the deal having been that there should be no announcement until BP’s figures were published.But beneath the surface a battle was raging.

By then if he’d offered me the job of head-gardener at No 10 I would have accepted.”Among the surprises was Tony Banks, the minister for sport, who had written off his own chances in a foreword to a book on life as a backbencher by Paul Flynn, which was published last week. “The chances of Tony Blair asking me to do anything other than shut up and vote are extremely remote,” pronounced Minister Banks. One new minister spent Saturday with a mobile phone and Sunday in the garden, regularly checking the answerphone in case he had not heard the ring: “By Monday morning I was not optimistic I felt very wound up Then the call finally came. One came in from the back garden to assure the Downing Street switchboard that he would be at that number for the rest of the day He eventually heard from Mr Blair Others were not so lucky.

For one new minister the sensation was like being an adolescent in love: “You’ve met her, you’ve got a crush on her, and you don’t know why she hasn’t rung. Is it something you’ve said that upset her, or perhaps she never really liked you and was just being polite. And then you wonder, should you phone?” Some, indeed, could not wait and rang the newly appointed Chief Whip, Nick Brown. Often they were disappointed.With Cabinet announcements completed on Saturday, Ministers of State got their call on Sunday morning.