The former head of the Royal Navy and a leading surgeon were appointed as ministers yesterday in Gordon Brown’s reshaped Government.

Admiral Sir Alan West was made a junior Minister for Security at the Home Office and immediately went into action, responding to the discovery of a car bomb in London.

Sir Ara Darzi was made a junior Health Minister. He is a pioneer of minimally invasive surgery and has been conducting a review of London healthcare.

Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, who turned down Mr Brown’s offer of a ministerial post, was appointed his senior adviser on international security. He will also continue his role heading a Conservative task force.

Tom Watson also returns to Government, as a Labour whip. He was the first minister to resign in protest at Mr Blair’s refusal to name a date for his departure, contributing to the build-up of pressure on him. At the time Mr Blair said that Mr Watson was “disloyal, discourteous and wrong.”

Kitty Ussher takes the role of City Minister. Sir Digby Jones, a former director-general of the CBI, has been made a Minister of State for Trade and Investment in the new Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.

Shriti Vadera, a former Treasury adviser to Mr Brown who specialised in development aid, is made a junior minister in International Development.

On Thursday, Lord Malloch Brown, former deputy secretary-general of the United Nations, was appointed a Foreign and Commonwealth Office minister.

Mr Brown has also recruited two Liberal Democrat peers to advisory roles. Baroness Neuberger will work with the Prime Minister on voluntary sector issues, Lord Lester of Herne Hill, QC, will advise Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, on constitutional reform.

Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, had previously rejected an offer from Mr Brown for members of his party to serve as ministers in the Government.

Sir Digby’s appointment will be controversial with the trade unions. He appealed to union leaders to focus on training and members’ pensions rather than “last-century issues”.

“It’s very important that people from every walk of life understand that their role is to get this country putting the ball in the net,” he told BBC Radio 4’s PM.

“There is a new Prime Minister, there is a new air about, there’s a new way of trying to govern the country. I am delighted to get the chance to put business, wealth creation and job creation right in the middle of the decision-making and policy formulation of the Government.”

Professor Darzi, who was born in Baghdad but spent much of his childhood in Ireland, will work Monday to Thursday as a minister and be paid pro rata. On Fridays he will continue to work as an NHS surgeon, unpaid. Any income from his international private practice will be paid direct to Imperial College, London, to fund research, a spokesman said.

All the new ministers will be expected to take the Labour whip in the Lords but will not be required to join the party, Mr Brown’s spokesman said.

Adam Ingram left the Government after ten years as a Northern Ireland and defence minister but will head a year-long review of the military’s role in tackling the global terrorist threat.

The admiral

An admiral has come out of retirement to be a minister in Gordon Brown’s Government, the first time that a former Royal Navy chief has swapped a warship for a ministerial desk (Michael Evans writes).

Admiral Sir Alan West, who retired as First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff last year, has accepted Mr Brown’s offer to become the Security Minister at the Home Office.

However, his brief will not be totally novel to him. He served for four years as Chief of Defence Intelligence, between 1997 and 2001, and held a staff job in Naval Intelligence when he was a captain in 1989.

Civil servants at the Home Office will have to get used to serving a minister who 25 years ago commanded HMS Ardent, the frigate that was sunk by Argentine bombers in the Falklands conflict. Twenty-two of his crew were killed. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his leadership in the conflict.

The surgeon

An internationally renowned pioneer of keyhole surgery is now charged with improving patient care across the NHS (David Rose writes).

Promoted from his previous role as national adviser on surgery, Sir Ara Darzi is a supporter of Government plans to reconfigure health services by merging and closing some wards. In a report published earlier this year he said that 80 per cent of operations should be carried out on patients in their local area, with the remainder undertaken at specialist centres.

Sir Ara, 47, has a distinguished career, and is particularly respected for his innovative work in the advancement of minimal invasive surgery.

He will combine his ministerial duties with his research and clinical commitments. He will work Monday to Thursday as a Health Minister – being paid for three days – and continue to work as an NHS surgeon, unpaid, on Fridays.

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