Shirley Williams offered advisory role
Gordon Brown offered Liberal Democrat peer Shirley Williams a role in his “government of all the talents”.
Baroness Williams confirmed she had met with Gordon Brown but said the prime minister offered her an advisory role rather than a ministerial position.
Mr Brown met with the Social Democrat Party (SDP) founder last night and asked her to advise his new government on nuclear issues and weapons of mass destruction.
Baroness Williams said they enjoyed a “friendly and positive discussion” about the dangers of unsecured nuclear materials and nuclear proliferation.
She is yet to accept the position and is seeking advice from Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell.
Baroness Williams began her political career as a Labour MP and served in a Labour Cabinet.
In the early 1980s she was part of the “gang of four” who defected from Labour to form the SDP, which later merged with the Liberal party to become the Liberal Democrats.
She is now the only Briton on the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s (NTI) board of directors in Washington, DC.
The NTI is a public charity working to reduce the risk of use and prevent the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
Baroness Williams said: “NTI has done a great deal to secure nuclear weapons and nuclear materials in the countries of the former Soviet Union, among them Russia itself. It is also concerned with the securing of chemical and biological weapons.
“Mr Brown suggested that I might be able to advise his government on these and related matters.
I told him that I would discuss his suggestion with Menzies Campbell and Lord McNally, Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, as well as with NTI, and would then get back to him.”
Sir Menzies has openly stated no Liberal Democrats will serve in Mr Brown’s government, but he may encourage Baroness Williams to take up an advisory position.
Mr Brown had offered former Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown a place within his government as Northern Ireland secretary but this was rebuffed by the peer.
