Despite being appointed to the Ministry of Transport, a role which she was originally unenthusiastic about, Castle could not actually drive herself, and was chauffeured to functions, the Labour politician Hazel Blears driving her at one time as a young Labour party activist in the 1980s.

The stadium was finally approved by Secretary of State Hazel Blears on 24 July 2007.

The early polls in the Deputy Leadership contest showed him to be the grassroots ' favourite-in a YouGov poll of party members, Benn was top on 27 %, followed by Education Secretary Alan Johnson on 18 %, Environment Secretary David Miliband on 17 %, Justice Minister Harriet Harman on 10 %, and Labour Party Chair Hazel Blears on 7 %.

The contest was formally launched on 14 May 2007 after the resignation of incumbent Deputy leader John Prescott, Benn had some initial difficulties securing the necessary 45 nominations required to get on the ballot paper but he acquired the support needed to join five other candidates-Hazel Blears, Harriet Harman, Alan Johnson, Peter Hain and backbencher Jon Cruddas.

Hazel Anne Blears ( born 14 May 1956 ) is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament ( MP ) for Salford and Eccles since 2010 and was previously the MP for Salford since 1997.

Hazel Blears was born in Salford on 14 May 1956, the daughter of a maintenance fitter.

As a young child, Hazel and her brother Stephen both played street urchins in the film A Taste of Honey which was filmed in Salford in 1961, when Blears was aged five.

In the run-up to the 2001 General Election, Blears was a member and later deputy head of the Labour Party campaign team, a group of backbenchers tasked with campaigning around the country.

Blears was promoted in 2003 to Minister of State at the Home Office, with responsibilities for policing, crime reduction and counter terrorism.

In April 2008 it was rumoured that Brown was planning a summer reshuffle in which Blears would be demoted.

In May 2008 Blears mistakenly commented on BBC's Question Time that there were 3 million people unemployed in the United Kingdom when Labour came to power in 1997 ( the official figure was 1, 602, 500 ).

In August 2005 Blears said the ' rebranding ' of ethnic minorities in favour of adopting US-style hyphenated titles such as Asian-British or Indian-British was " among a range of ideas " brought up in meetings with Muslim and other community groups.

In 2006 Blears joined in protests against the closure of hospital departments in her constituency, even though these closures were consistent with the policies of the government of which she was a senior member.

The property was registered as her main residence with HM Revenue and Customs, but Blears had been claiming MPs ' second home expenses relating to the flat.

Following an investigation by Sir Thomas Legg, Blears was told to repay £ 225 in expenses in relation to a glass shelving unit for her London flat.

In 2005 Blears was a member of a parliamentary tap-dancing troupe known as the Division Belles.

In February 2007, it was announced that she would be Hazel Blears ' campaign manager in Blears ' campaign for the Deputy Leadership election of the Labour Party following John Prescott's resignation.

Blears did not win, finishing sixth in the Deputy Leadership election, but her conduct during the campaign was rewarded with the Cabinet Post of Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

Following the 2006 local elections, he was promoted to Minister of State for policing, security and community safety at the Home Office, replacing Hazel Blears, one of the highest-profile roles in the government outside the cabinet.

The first PWF Chairman, who presented the belts to the winners in title bouts, was Lord James Blears.

Recent speakers at the LSE have included Kofi Annan, Hilary Benn, Ben Bernanke, Tony Blair, Hazel Blears, Cherie Booth, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Noam Chomsky, Bill Clinton, Alistair Darling, Niall Ferguson, Joschka Fischer, Vicente Fox, Milton Friedman, Muammar al-Gaddafi, John Lewis Gaddis, Alan Greenspan, Tenzin Gyatso, Will Hutton, Paul Krugman, Richard Lambert, Jens Lehmann, Lee Hsien Loong, John Major, Nelson Mandela, Mary McAleese, Dmitri Medvedev, John Atta Mills, Mario Monti, George Osborne, Robert Peston, Sebastián Piñera, Kevin Rudd, Jeffrey Sachs, Gerhard Schroeder, Carlos D. Mesa, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Costas Simitis, George Soros, Lord Stern, Jack Straw, Aung San Suu Kyi, Baroness Thatcher, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Rowan Williams.

After the 2001 General Election, Blears entered Tony Blair's government as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health, responsible for Public Health.

On 3 June 2009, the day before the 2009 European and local elections, Blears announced she would resign from the cabinet at the next reshuffle.

He indicated that he might stand against Hazel Blears in Salford ( the first sitting MP of a party other than the Conservative party against whom he expressed an interest in standing ) although in the end he did not stand in any constituency.

Hazel Blears started her career in Salford as a trainee solicitor with Salford City Council in 1978.

* Hazel Blears, British politician and Labour MP for Salford, Britain

Hazel Blears, then a Home Office Minister, said that inquiries made these claims were " unable to either substantiate this information or find evidence of any criminal offences having been committed ".

During that same title reign, in a match against Lord James Blears a fan threw acid on his back, and he had to return immediately to the locker room to wash it off.

He replaced Hazel Blears who had resigned from the post on 3 June 2009.

Commenting on the announcement, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, said that Blears had made an " outstanding contribution " to public life.

Will Hazel Blears be joining demonstrators on the streets in each of those areas or is this just a classic case of ' not in my back yard '"?

In May 2009 The Telegraph reported that Blears had claimed the maximum allowable expenses, within one pound, for three properties, as well as for stays in hotels, £ 4, 874 on furniture, £ 899 on a new bed and £ 913 on a new TV, the second such TV in under a year, and the maximum £ 400 a month in groceries.

Further, Blears had not paid capital gains tax on profit from the sale of a London flat.

His resignation came only days after the resignations of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, whose expenses had also caused controversy, and Communities Secretary Hazel Blears, who had also avoided paying capital gains tax on her property.

However Hazel Blears, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, requested that the inquiry be re-opened to examine the evidence further as to whether the bridge would lead to regeneration, and to investigate the potential impact on pollution.

Hazel Blears, the Secretary of State responsible for planning, re-affirmed the approval on 25 July 2007.

Special guests on this series include Hazel Blears MP, Andy Burnham, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and Helen Newlove, widow of Garry Newlove.

Hazel Blears, the former Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government said: " Today's ' Liverpool city-region ' Multi-Area Agreement will mean Merseyside's six councils will no longer have to work alone on their economy, they will work from the same blueprint with more devolved powers to deliver jobs, training, welfare support and economic resilience.

* Hazel Blears, Member of Parliament and former Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

In August 2008, Communities Secretary Hazel Blears announced that planning permission for the General Market development had been refused, stating that the threatened buildings made " a significant contribution " to the character and appearance of Farringdon and the surrounding area.

Supporting nominations from constituency Labour Parties showed Hilary Benn obtaining 25 %, Jon Cruddas 22 %, Harriet Harman 19 %, Alan Johnson 14 %, Hazel Blears 12 % and Peter Hain 8 % of the constituency parties that voted.

Michael Gove, the Education Secretary has been regarded as a Blairite many times, for his support for New Labour's public service reform but also for his praise of Tony Blair and many former Blairite ministers, such as Hazel Blears, James Purnell and Andrew Adonis.

On 28 June 2007 the new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown appointed Blears as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, replacing Ruth Kelly.

In March 2005, while Home Office minister with responsibility for counter-terrorism, Blears implied that section 44 of the terrorism act would dis-proportionally affect the Muslim community.