DAVID Miliband, the new Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, has been a rising star in the Labour ranks.

Very much a Blairite, he headed the Prime Minister's policy unit before being elected MP for South Shields in 2001.

He progressed rapidly becoming Minister of State for Schools in 2002, Minister for the Cabinet Office in 2004 and Minister of Communities and Local Government last year.

Aged 40, he was educated at Haverstock Comprehensive in London and graduated with first class honours in philosophy, politics and economics from Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He completed a master's degree in political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a Kennedy scholar.

Between 1989 and 1994 he was Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Policy Research and from 1992 to 1994 was Secretary of the Commission on Social Justice.

Married to violinist Louise Shackleton, with one child, Isaac, he is also president of South Shields FC and a member of Whiteleas and Cleadon Social Clubs.

He operates his own weblog - online diary - where he enters his daily activities and thoughts and welcomes comments. It can be accessed via www.davidmiliband.defra.gov.uk.

The rest of the Defra ministerial team is Ian Pearson, Ben Bradshaw, Barry Gardiner and Lord Rooker, not Baroness Ashton of Upholland as was originally announced. Their exact duties are to be announced.

* NFU president Peter Kendall met the new Defra Secretary of State, David Miliband, on a Hampshire farm on Wednesday.

He said the Minister was open in his need to learn about the industry and they had positive talks about finding sustainable and profitable solutions to farming that also delivered for the environment and society.

"He understands that farming matters, now and for the future, and he told me that farming was important for the country as well as the countryside," said Mr Kendall.

"I want a productive, profitable industry that also contributes to Government agendas, especially to mitigate climate change. I believe the Minister wants that too," he said.