Political Focus, with Bill Jacobs

IF CHRISTMAS in the Straw household was a little strained with young William's indiscretion, the New Year is looking very happy and bright.

For Home Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack has been anointed Tony Blair's right-hand man - if not quite yet given the poison chalice of being his chosen successor.

As I predicted, Mr Straw's deft handling of his son's cannabis arrest has done him good rather than harm.

The Prime Minister was impressed - certainly more impressed than he has been with the twists and turns of two of his other senior men Gordon Brown and Robin Cook.

While Mr Brown remains a power in the New Labour land and a key strategic thinker, his extraordinary sponsorship of a new biography starkly outlining his resentment over Mr Blair getting the party leadership ahead of him, has not advanced his cause.

The Premier is, whatever his spin-doctors may say, not pleased, and many supporters of the Chancellor of the Exchequer have been deserting the ship as a result - Local Government Minister Hilary Armstrong and Health Minister Alan Milburn to name but two, heard at Westminster distancing themselves from their mentor.

Mr Brown's many enemies have been having a field day at the expense of the "childish" and "petulant'' behaviour.

Foreign Secretary Mr Cook has similarly done himself no favours with the entanglements of his personal affairs.

His "clean break" end to his marriage to make way for Constituency Secretary Gaynor Regan has turned out to be a very messy affair. The first woman scorned - wife Margaret - has enjoyed her revenge as a dish best eaten cold, and in delightfully bite sized portions.

Now a second female assassin has appeared from the shadows - the professionally, rather than personally, scorned Anne Bullen.

Whatever the reasons for her sacking - and from my personal dealings with previous Foreign Secretaries I can vouch for the fact she was far more than your average Whitehall Diary Secretary - the way it was handled was a diplomatic disaster.

To even consider replacing her with his mistress was sheer lunacy, and opened the floodgates for the Tories and the tabloids to declare open season on his personal and professional affairs.

Former Foreign Office Junior Minister - Liam Fox - who dealt with Paul Wells and the other Afghan hostages - took advantage to explicitly link the two together and be the first to call for Mr Cook's resignation.

He said: "It's not the fact that he's had an affair that is so offensive, although I am sure many women will feel his treatment of his wife was very shoddy.

"It's the fact that he tried to use his position to get his mistress a job."

His panic-stricken attack on Miss Bullen as "impossible to work with" and invoking Princess Diana in his defence, have undermined his reputation for political judgement and steadiness under fire for good.

As Mr Cook has little personal following, the glee on Labour's benches at his embarrassment has been unrestrained, and his position as intellectual leader of the Labour left badly dented.

While Mr Blair is likely to do a favour to all politicians (even, or perhaps especially, Tories) by keeping Mr Cook in his job and demonstrating to the tabloid press that they can no longer hound any Minister they please out of their job, he is (in Dr Fox's phrase) "now damaged goods." Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott is powerful because of his appeal to the "heart over head" left but, as he knows, no real Prime Ministerial contender. In any case, he is getting bogged down in the unpopular details of policy on house building, green belts, traffic and transport policy.

Minister without Portfolio Peter Mandelson is still far back down the track, not to mention so unpopular with his own party that many MPs and activists would happily see his political corpse as the main exhibit in the Millennium Dome.

So that leaves Mr Straw clear of the field.

His opening salvo in the new elevated status was a speech setting out New Labour's vision so vacuous that one hopes it was written by Number Ten's policy advisers.

But this week's address on the need to involve parents in nipping youth crime in the bud was courageous and coherent, given his recent family circumstances.

But as the evidence of Mr Brown and Mr Cook proves, now he will be fully under the spotlight from now on.

One ally summed up the pluses and minuses thus: "I'm delighted for Jack. He thoroughly deserves it.

"He is genuinely well respected in the Parliamentary Party.

"But he's going to have to take care. Everyone will be after him now - the Tories and the press."

And the Home Secretary's friend might have added many in his own party.

Well liked he may be, but the allies of Mr Cook - with whom he does get on - and Mr Brown - with whom he does not - will be even more relentless than the Opposition to nail their champion's rival.

Life at the top of the Westminster tree is likely to be a lot harder than being on the stump in Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.