Who is James Purnell?

Who is James Purnell, the first Cabinet member with the balls to tell Prime Minister Gordon Brown his time is up? Though not the balls to tell him face to face. Instead - to the fury of Number 10 - he advised the media of his intention to quit the Cabinet, and gave them a copy of his 'stand aside' letter to the PM, just as the 10 o'clock news came on air.

Although it was Brown who promoted him to the Cabinet table - initially as Culture Secretary and then as Work and Pensions Secretary, the role he resigned from last night - his assassin is an ultra-Blairite.

He began his speedy rise in New Labour politics working as a researcher for Tony Blair well before the 1997 landslide, while still reading philosophy, politics and economics at Balliol.

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After leaving Oxford with a first, he worked at the BBC in corporate planning and then rejoined Blair in Downing Street as his special advisor on the media. His reward for four years' loyal service was a nice, safe Labour seat for the 2001 general election - Stalybridge and Hyde in Greater Manchester.

His rise continued smooth and fast. Blair made him a junior minister in the Culture Department and then moved him to Work and Pensions on the resignation of Peter Hain, where he is said to have impressed colleagues with his instant mastery of complex briefs.

At the same time, he developed an easy relationship with the media, earning him the Daily Mail's tag today of "the sideburned schmoozer".

Crucially, when Blair stood down in June 2007, unlike more senior Blairites such as Charles Clarke and Stephen Byers who couldn't stand Brown - and vice versa - Purnell was one of the 'Blairites for Brown' who made it clear he was happy to work with Blair's long-time Chancellor.

His career is not glitch-free. While Culture Secretary, he warned the TV industry to "get their house in order" after a series of scandals involving faked footage and dodgy phone-ins. He then found himself involved in a fakery row of his own after it emerged that his image had been electronically inserted into a group photograph of dignitaries celebrating a hospital project. Purnell denied all knowledge.

As for the great expenses scandal, he has been touched by it, but not tarnished as badly as his fellow Cabinet quitters, Jacqui Smith and Hazel Blears. The Daily Telegraph alleged that he avoided paying capital gains tax on the sale of a London flat after claiming expenses for tax advice from an accountant. On his website he offers a long and tortuous explanation to the good people of Stalybridge and Hyde as to why he did nothing wrong.

At 39, Purnell remains single - which in this case that does not mean gay. He has been engaged to a filmmaker he met at Oxford, Lucy Walker, and had a brief relationship with BBC Newsnight producer Thea Rogers.