Junior posts

Shadow warms to role

Angela Browning has to cover the whole gamut of education issues as junior spokesman in the Commons, but could still be forgiven for finding her new incarnation pleasantly quiet. For the three years before the election she was an agriculture minister, coping with the BSE and E.coli rows.

She leavens broadly rightwing views with a more liberal streak on special needs. She has an autistic son and voted for the 1994 bill on civil rights for the disabled. She is a rare further education alumna on the Conservative benches, having attended Reading and Bournemouth colleges of technology.

Her colleague handling employment issues, David Willetts, 45, has been rapidly rehabilitated after being forced to resign as paymaster general. A former Treasury civil servant, Mr Willetts built his political profile through the influential Conservative think-tanks.

Former under secretary of state for education and science Michael Fallon is expected to take up the science mantle for the Conservatives. He has been a member of the Higher Education Funding Council for England since 1993.

Cheryl Gillan, former under secretary at education and employment, is likely to shadow the DTI parliamentary under secretaries of state.