The future face of Labour

Fraser Nelson talks to Douglas Alexander, the young Transport Secretary, who shot to prominence during last week’s terrorist threat to our airports

The last week has given us our first, unexpected glimpse of the post-Blair era. There has been a crisis at the airports, a massive terrorist plot averted. Yet the only sign of the Prime Minister has been blurry pictures of a pair of floral swimming trunks disappearing into the Caribbean. Instead, the two politicians running Britain last week — leaving aside the wretched figure of John Prescott — were the familiar figure of John Reid and a diminutive 38-year-old of whom we will be hearing much more in the coming months.

When Douglas Alexander was appointed Transport Secretary, his new role was seen as one of the more thankless junior Cabinet jobs, involving sporadic rows over the railways, congestion charging and carbon dioxide emissions. But last week he found himself propelled into the front line in the war against terrorism, co-ordinating the emergency security regime across British airports, and taking the measures necessary to thwart those members of the alleged plot still presumed to be at large.