Alan Milburn returns to UK health department

After 10 months as chief secretary to the Treasury, Alan Milburn has returned to the Department of Health as secretary of state. He was minister of state in the first year of the Labour government, when his responsibilities included primary care and general medical services.

At the time, the Daily Telegraph commented, “his reassured manner and eye for detail should mark him out as a star of the government.”

Mr Milburn, aged 41, read history at Lancaster University, and before he became MP for Darlington in 1992, …