Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

David Miliband was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in June 2007.

He was Secretary of State at the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs from May 2006 until June 2007.

He entered the Cabinet as Minister of Communities and Local Government in May 2005, supporting the Deputy Prime Minister on housing, planning, regeneration and local government.

He was appointed Minister for the Cabinet Office in December 2004 and Minister of State for Schools in June 2002. He has been MP for South Shields since June 2001.

He was Head of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit from 1997 – 2004 and Head of Policy in the Office of the Leader of the Opposition in the mid-1990s. From 1989 to 1994 he was Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and from 1992 to 1994 Secretary of the Commission on Social Justice.

Born on 15 July 1965, David Miliband was educated at Haverstock Comprehensive School in London. After graduating with first class honours in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Corpus Christi College, Oxford University, and completed a masters degree in Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a Kennedy Scholar.

He is President of South Shields Football Club, and a member of the Whiteleas and Cleadon Social Clubs. He is married to violinist Louise Shackelton and they have two sons.

Responsibilities

• overall responsibility for the work of the Office
• policy planning and research analysts
• communications
• honours
• Whitehall Liaison Department.