Source:
Daily TelegraphGordon Brown could bypass the winner of Labour's deputy leadership contest and parachute Jack Straw, his campaign manager, into the job of Deputy Prime Minister, senior party sources said last night.
Such a move would disappoint front-runners for the job - including Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary and Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland Secretary - who are keen to land the title of Deputy Prime Minister and the prestige that goes with it. Mr Brown, who is under no obligation to make the deputy leader his Deputy Prime Minister, has refused to make any guarantee because he does not want to tie his hands before knowing who the winner will be.
The job of Deputy Prime Minister comes with the same salary (£137,579) as other Cabinet ministers. But among the perks that go with the title are Dorneywood, the Buckinghamshire country house, and the right to deputise at Prime Minister's Questions.
One minister with links to Mr Brown said last night that most of the candidates in the deputy leadership race would not be appropriate for the role of Deputy Prime Minister, which carried huge responsibility including chairing a raft of Cabinet committees.
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So it appears that the beauty contest to elect the deputy leader of the Labour party would appear from this report to be even more irrelevent as some in the British Labour party don't seem too keen on listening to their own members votes.
And I'm sure you lot remember Jack Straw as British Foreign Secretary at the time of the Iraq invasion.