Blair gives techie-spice a job he really, really wants

The man who orchestrated Geri Halliwell's party political broadcast appearance for the Labour Party has been rewarded for his efforts with the ecommerce portfolio.

Douglas Alexander's first ministerial post will provide something of a change of role for the ambitious party-insider.

Despite mutterings that the 33-year-old MP for Paisley South was too young for the job, he was widely tipped for promotion after his key role in running Labour's successful election campaign.

During celebrations at Millbank last Thursday night, Blair singled out Alexander for special thanks, prompting one party insider to tell the Mail on Sunday: "Tony has been impressed with Douglas throughout the campaign and is clearly going to reward him. He is ice-cool, keeps his eye on the ball and handles the media well."

Alexander was catapulted into politics in 1997, winning Paisley South in a by-election following the suicide of MP Gordon McMaster.

Politics runs in the family, Alexander's elder sister, Wendy, is Scotland's enterprise minister and their father, the Rev Douglas Alexander, was a friend of Scotland's first minister, Donald Dewar, and conducted his funeral service last year.

A close friend and ally of Gordon Brown, Alexander has a reputation for taking his politics seriously and is clearly eyeing a role on the Cabinet before he hits his 40th birthday.

Evidence of any predisposition towards ecommerce is meager - a search of the parliamentary records of Hansard uncovers very little from the youthful MP on the subject of ebusiness, the internet or technology.

His website might tell us more, but the conscientious MP took it down to avoid breaking electoral guidelines and so far there's no sign of its return (when it does come back, check out http://www.dalexandermp.demon.co.uk .

During his first few days in office the new e-minister will be spending most of his time behind closed doors, mugging up on the raft of topics facing him.

As soon as he is let out in public, silicon.com will be waiting to question him on his plans for the coming months.

Although with a reputation for berating journalists over their obsession with mindless trivia, we can't help but point out that his sister is e-minister for the Scottish parliament. At least he'll have someone to turn to should he need advice about his new job.