Huntingdonshire MPs appointed in coalition Government

BOTH Huntingdonshire MPs have accepted jobs as Ministers in the new Liberal Democrat-Conservative coalition Government. Jonathan Djanogly, who represents Huntingdon and previously combined shadow ministerial responsibility for industry with the post of Sh

BOTH Huntingdonshire MPs have accepted jobs as Ministers in the new Liberal Democrat-Conservative coalition Government.

Jonathan Djanogly, who represents Huntingdon and previously combined shadow ministerial responsibility for industry with the post of Shadow Solicitor General, joins his former boss Kenneth Clarke in the Ministry of Justice.

North West Cambridgeshire's MP Shailesh Vara, who was Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Commons, becomes a Government Whip.

Both new Ministers were delighted by their new jobs.

"In some ways this was the best option for me," Mr Djanogly told The Hunts Post, "and I shall be delighted to be working with Ken Clarke again. (Mr Clarke, former Huntingdon MP Sir John Major's Chancellor of the Exchequer, returned to the shadow cabinet last year as Shadow Business Secretary.)

Mr Vara was in no doubt that acting as a Tory Whip in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats - the Whips' task is to maintain discipline among party members - would be "interesting".

"It will no doubt produce some challenging times," he said. Such words may turn out to have been prophetic.