Media-shy fixer is parachuted into another bitterly divided department

As he arrived at the disaster-hit Department of Transport yesterday, Alistair Darling had a sense of déjà vu. His mind went back four years, to when he was parachuted into the beleaguered Department of Social Security (DSS).

As with the department he has inherited from Stephen Byers, the DSS had been paralysed by a civil war. Mr Darling discovered two rival courts obeying the commands of Harriet Harman, the Social Security Secretary at the time, and Frank Field, officially her deputy as minister for Welfare Reform, both of whom had been sacked by Tony Blair.

When Mr Darling asked DSS officials what the policies were, he got a blank look. But he kept the high-profile department out of the media spotlight and, slowly but surely, turned it round.

Mr Blair's vacuous pledge of "radical welfare reform" was replaced with incremental change to stem the growth of the £100bn-a-year social security budget. Mr Darling did this without media hype, another qualification for the job at the Transport Department, which is desperate to shed its image as the "department of spin".

Mr Darling is a more complicated man than his caricature suggests. He is portrayed as grey and bland; in fact, he is shy and has a sharp wit. He is labelled a Brownite but he is really the ultimate loyalist. "He is a Government-ite," one friend said yesterday.

At the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the renamed DSS, he often had to defend publicly the policies for which Mr Brown was responsible, notably the derisory 75p-a-week rise in the basic state pension. Mr Darling warned the Treasury that it would cause a row, but Mr Brown pressed on regardless.

While remaining publicly loyal, Mr Darling fought his corner hard for his share of Treasury cash, but did so without briefing the media.

He showed that he is his own man this month when he refused to defend Mr Blair's controversial plan to cut child benefit payments for truants. He showed it again yesterday when he insisted on taking Rachel Lomax, his permanent secretary at the DWP, with him to the Department of Transport, ensuring a fresh start among civil servants as well as ministers.

Mr Darling, 48, has always listed transport as one of his interests. He was chair of Lothian Region Transport Comm- ittee in the days when he was a left-wing councillor. He was both anti-nuclear and anti-devolution, but after becoming MP for Edinburgh Central in 1987 he was happy to be in the Labour mainstream.

Privately, he was unhappy with Treasury-inspired moves to cut benefits for lone parents, which Ms Harman had to implement. He is a strong believer in Mr Brown's strategy to redistribute wealth but does not shout it from the rooftops.

His main tasks at the DWP completed, Mr Darling has been happy to keep a low profile since last year's general election. But that will all change now.

A natural Treasury man, he has been regarded as a shoo-in for Chancellor if Mr Brown becomes Prime Minister. But, as the swift demise of Mr Byers shows, politics is a game of snakes and ladders. Mr Darling must pass the stiffest test of his career if he is to move further up the rungs of government.