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  1. Politics
19 November 2010

Ed Miliband’s Mandelson

Stewart Wood is named a Labour peer and will become shadow minister without portfolio.

By George Eaton

Of the new Labour peers, the two that stand out are Stewart Wood, the former Oxford don who currently who serves as Ed Miliband’s chief strategist and Maurice Glasman, one of the leaders of London Citizens and the father of “Blue Labour”.

Wood, in particular, will take on an expanded and more visible role within the party. He will now attend shadow cabinet and will act as shadow minister without portfolio, shadowing Sayeeda Warsi. Wood, who previously served as Gordon Brown’s foreign affairs adviser, is also expected to work closely with Cabinet Office minister Liam Byrne on Labour’s policy review. Labour List’s Mark Ferguson reports that he will lead Miliband’s “intellectual work and the development of his long-term political agenda.” The size and scope of Wood’s responsibilities will see him take on an almost Mandelson-like role as Miliband’s chief consigliere.

One could see it as a reward for the years in which he endured Gordon Brown’s temper tantrums.

Below is a full list of the new Labour peers.

* Dame Joan Bakewell DBE – writer and broadcaster
* Ray Collins – General Secretary of the Labour Party
* Maurice Glasman – Senior Lecturer in political theory at London Metropolitan University and for his work with London Citizens
* Jonathan Kestenbaum – businessman and Chief Executive of National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts
* Oona King – Head of Diversity at Channel 4 Television and former Labour MP; currently journalist and presenter
* Ruth Lister – Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at Loughbrough University
* Eluned Morgan – former Labour MEP representing Mid and West Wales; currently Honorary Distinguished Professor at Cardiff University and for her work on low carbon energy
* Sir Gulam Noon MBE – Chairman and Founder of Noon Products and of the Noon Foundation
* Stewart Wood – former Downing Street and HMT special adviser, lecturer at University of Oxford; previously Fellow of Magdalen College and co-founder of Nexus
* Bryony Worthington – career focusing on promoting environmental and social change

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