Brown Cabinet reshuffle begins

Gordon Brown's reshuffle has started after Downing Street announced the resignation of Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt.

In a letter to the new Prime Minister, Ms Hewitt said she had decided to step down from Government so she could give more time to her "constituency and family".

Although Mr Brown had offered to keep her in the Cabinet she felt it was the "right moment" to go.

Mr Brown officially became Britain's 52nd Prime Minister after being asked by the Queen at Buckingham Palace to form a new Government.

Speaking with his wife Sarah beside him in Downing Street, Mr Brown said: "I have just accepted the invitation of Her Majesty the Queen to form a Government.

"This will be a new Government with new priorities and I have been privileged to have been granted the great opportunity to serve my country."

He promised to be at all times "strong and steadfast" and to govern beyond narrow political interests.

Mr Brown claimed his first Cabinet scalp by axing Margaret Beckett as Foreign Secretary.

The Prime Minister, who earlier spoke with President George W Bush, has also hired The Apprentice tycoon Sir Alan Sugar to advise him on business. The Amstrad boss will sit on a special Business Leaders Council alongside other industry figures.

Sir Alan said: "I look forward to making my contribution to the Business Leaders Council, which will act as a consultative body to the Department of Trade and Industry."

Earlier, Mr Brown's predecessor Tony Blair received a standing ovation in the Commons and bowed out by saying he was "truly sorry" for the dangers faced by the UK's armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan but again defended his foreign policy decisions.

Mr Blair, who has since been confirmed as the new Middle East peace quartet envoy, said: "I know some may think they face these dangers in vain. I don't and I never will. I believe they are fighting for the security of this country in the wider world against people who would destroy our way of life."

The impromptu statement at the start of question time came after he was given a rousing farewell cheer by his backbenchers in a crowded House.

Mr Blair then responded to the traditional first question on his engagements, by saying he had meetings with colleagues earlier today but would have no further such meetings later.

Tory leader David Cameron paid tribute to Mr Blair's "remarkable achievement of being Prime Minister for ten years" and the "huge efforts you have made in terms of public service".

Mr Cameron said among Mr Blair's "considerable achievements" were progress in Northern Ireland and the developing world. He concluded by wishing the Prime Minister "every success whatever you do in future".

Mr Blair thanked the Tory leader, saying that despite their political differences he had always found him "most proper, correct and courteous in his dealings with me".

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell said that Mr Blair had been "unfailingly courteous" and extended his party's best wishes to the departing Prime Minister and his family.

After a final tribute from the Father of the House, Labour MP Alan Williams, Mr Blair signed off with an admission that while he had never been "a great House of Commons man" that he had never stopped fearing it.

"Some may belittle politics but we who are engaged in it know that it is where people stand tall," he said. "Although I know it has its many harsh contentions it is still the arena that sets the heart beating a little faster.

"If it is on occasions still the place of low skulduggery it is more often the place for the pursuit of noble causes. I wish everyone, friend or foe, well. And that is that. The end."

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