Opportunity may have come too early for the rising star Miliband
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Your support makes all the difference.Charles Clarke, the Labour Party chairman, Patricia Hewitt, the Trade and Industry Secretary, and Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, were being tipped as possible replacements for Estelle Morris.
The most eye-catching potential successor, David Miliband, the Schools Standards minister, was being ruled out by Government sources. Mr Miliband joined the Government in May, less than a year after becoming an MP for the first time in the 2001 general election and a further rapid rise is seen as a step too far. Despite the 37-year-old's clear talent, senior sources said the successor was likely to come from within the Cabinet. "We need someone who has experience of running a big department," one said.
Mr Clarke has relished his role as party chairman but is said by some to be itching to get a "real job" in the Cabinet as a spending minister. Renowned as a political "bruiser", he upset some colleagues by launching a full-frontal assault on the media following the controversies over Labour donors and the "Black Rod affair".
A key Blairite, he was a junior minister at the Department for Education and Employment in the last Parliament before moving through the Home Office to his present job.
Unlike other contenders, he has no departmental responsibilities that would be upset by a move.
Mrs Hewitt has impressed Tony Blair with her handling of the DTI, but some critics claim she needs more experience in the Cabinet. Ms Jowell could also provide Mr Blair with another female Education Secretary, but, as with Ms Hewitt, she is only just getting to grips with her department.
John Reid, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, is not a natural "touchy-feely" politician but is highly valued by the Prime Minister and some claim his skills are not being used to the full in Belfast. Unfortunately, the suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly means that this is perhaps the wrong time for him to move.
Other highly-rated outsiders include Stephen Timms, the Trade and Industry minister, John Denham, the Home Office minister, and Ruth Kelly, Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
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