Wilson succeeds Hain as UK energy minister

June 12, 2001
The UK Labour party has named Brian Wilson, Minister of Parliament for the Shetland constituency of Cunninghame North, to succeed Peter Hain as Britain's energy minister, after Hain was promoted to the post of minister for Europe. The move comes in the second wave of a cabinet shuffle launched by Prime Minister Tony Blair following his party's reelection last Thursday.


By the OGJ Online Staff

LONDON, June 12 -- The UK Labour party has named Brian Wilson, currently Minister of Parliament for the Shetland constituency of Cunninghame North, to succeed Peter Hain as Britain's energy minister, after Hain was promoted to the post of minister for Europe.

The move comes in the second wave of a cabinet shuffle launched by Prime Minister Tony Blair following his party's reelection last Thursday.

Wilson, born in 1948, comes to his new post from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office where he was a minister of state. He was previously at Scottish Office from 1999 to 2001, and earlier at the Department of Trade and Industry as minister for trade between 1998 and 1999.

Hain originally stepped into the role of energy minister at the DTI in January as part of an unscheduled cabinet and ministerial reshuffle prompted by the Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson's sudden resignation.