Stephen Byers

Stephen Byers

He may be famous for telling a radio interviewer that eight times seven was 54 but Stephen Byers has proved there is little wrong with his political calculations.

Indeed, a panel of Mensa members placed him just behind Peter Mandelson in terms of "political quotient" or PQ, a cross between IQ and political acumen.

The man who has just turned down Sky TV's bid to buy Manchester United has had a meteoric rise to his present post of secretary of state for trade and industry. He was a senior law lecturer at Newcastle Polytechnic - now the University of Northumbria - and a leading light of North Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council until 1992, when he became Labour MP for Wallsend.

In opposition, he was a whip and frontbench spokesman on education, becoming minister for school standards at the Department for Education and Employment after Labour's victory in 1997. At the same time, because of boundary changes, his seat changed to North Tyneside. He was promoted to his present cabinet post following Peter Mandelson's resignation last December.

As schools minister he pioneered naming and shaming of schools and criticised the assisted places scheme and school opt-outs.

The son of an RAF technician, Byers attended Chester City Grammar School, where he fathered a child with a fellow pupil when both were just 17. After A levels he went on to study law at Liverpool Polytechnic, now Liverpool John Moores University.

Considered "dry" by some but "calm under pressure" and "personable", he is often tipped as a future prime minister.

Removal of his moustache was seen as one sign of his new Labour ambitions, another was his disclosure to journalists over a seafood meal of Labour's "secret" plans to ditch links with the unions.

A Newcastle United fan, gardener and walker, he lives in the constituency with his long-term partner Jan Cookson, a solicitor.

People is edited by Harriet Swain and researched by Lynne Williams.

Send all information to Lynne Williams. The THES Admiral House 66-68 East Smithfield London E1 9XYTel 0171 782 3375