This week's key appointments

Friday, 17 September 2004 12:00 AM

After last week's Government and Conservative reshuffles, this week's excitement is the decision of two well-known MP's not to stand for re-election.

Estelle Morris, the Arts Minister and Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley has announced that she will step down at the next election. She will, however, remain as Arts Minister until then.

Ms Morris was once one of New Labour brightest rising stars and quickly rose to the position of Education Secretary. She famously resigned saying that she did not believe she was up to the job.

Announcing her decision, Mr Morris said that she was looking for a new challenge outside Parliament, though she is not believed to have decided yet exactly what to do.

This Friday, Gillian Shepard, Conservative MP for Norfolk South West, also announced her decision to step down from Parliament citing unspecified "family health reasons".

The 64-year-old has had a distinguished career in the Tory party, having entered Parliament in 1987 and gained her first ministerial job in social security two years later. She later served in the Treasury, MAFF and the Ministry for Education and as deputy chairman of the Conservative Party.

Her successor as constituency candidate will have a healthy 9000 majority to defend.

On the Scottish front, Alex Salmond, having staged a successful return to the leadership of the Scottish National Party, unveiled his new front bench. There are few surprises in the list, with Nicola Sturgeon, his running mate, being appointed deputy leader. There was, however, no place in the team for his defeated leadership opponent Roseanna Cunningham. This will be the first time in a decade the Perth MSP has not been in the top team.

She will now sit on the Scottish Parliament Health Committee.

Mr Salmond won the leadership election at the beginning of September in a landside, with almost 75 per cent of the vote on a nearly 80 per cent turnout.

The election was sparked by the resignation of party leader John Swinney, who has now taken a place on the Scottish Parliament European and External Relations Committee.

Back at Westminster, Howard Flight MP (Con, Arundel and South Downs) and Andrew MacKay MP (Con, Bracknell) have been appointed as deputy chairs of the Conservative Party.

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