Stephen John Byers (born 13 April 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tyneside from 1997 to 2010; in the previous parliament, from 1992, he represented Wallsend. He did not contest the 2010 general election.

During Byers' ministerial career, he was Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, and Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions in the Cabinet.

Stephen Byers was born in Wolverhampton. He was educated at Wymondham College, a state-run day and boarding school; the City of Chester Grammar School; and the Chester College of Further Education. He then gained a law degree at Liverpool John Moores University and became a law teacher at Northumbria University from 1977 until his election to Parliament in 1992.

Byers was elected as a councillor to the North Tyneside District Council in 1980 and was its deputy leader from 1985 until he became an Member of Parliament in 1992. Said to be a one-time supporter of the Entrist and Trotskyist group "Militant" within the Labour Party – which he denies – Byers publicly rejected the group's approach by 1986. In the 1983 general election, he contested the Conservative stronghold seat of Hexham, finishing in third place and some 14,000 votes behind the former Cabinet minister Geoffrey Rippon. He was first elected to Parliament in the 1992 general election in Wallsend, a Labour stronghold, following the retirement of Ted Garrett, and secured a majority of 19,470.

Patricia Hope Hewitt (born 2 December 1948) is a British Labour Party politician, who served in the Cabinet until 2007, most recently as Health Secretary.

Originally a Tory, Hewitt soon became a high-profile left-winger and supporter of Tony Benn, being classified by MI5 as a communist sympathiser. After nine years as General Secretary of the National Council for Civil Liberties, she became press secretary to Neil Kinnock, whom she assisted in the modernisation of the Labour Party. In 1997, she became the first female MP for Leicester West, a safe Labour seat, which she represented for thirteen years.

In 2001, she joined Blair's cabinet as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, before becoming Health Secretary in 2005, chiefly remembered for getting smoking banned in public places, against heavy opposition. Hewitt has sparked many controversies, notably her selection of a female job-applicant over a stronger male candidate, and her theory that fathers may not be a useful influence in the upbringing of children.

Geoffrey "Geoff" William Hoon (born 6 December 1953) is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashfield from 1992 to 2010. He is a former Defence Secretary, Transport Secretary, Leader of the House of Commons and Labour Party Chief Whip.

Hoon was born in Derby, England, and is the son of Ernest Hoon and June Collett.

Hoon was educated at the independent Nottingham High School before going on to Cambridge University, where he read law at Jesus College and graduated in 1974.

Hoon was a law lecturer at the University of Leeds from 1976–82, and was a warden at the all-male Devonshire Hall. He was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1978, and was also a visiting law professor at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, from 1980-81. In 1982, Hoon became a practising barrister for two years in Nottingham.

Hoon was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for Derbyshire in 1984 and served in Brussels and Strasbourg for ten years. He was elected to the House of Commons at the 1992 general election for Ashfield, making his maiden speech on 20 May 1992, following the retirement of the sitting Labour MP, Frank Haynes. He held the seat with a majority of 12,987 and remained the constituency's MP until the 2010 general election. He also attended the Bilderberg Conference in Scotland in 1998. Hoon has acquired the irreverent nickname Buff, (Buffoon). Although it was originally rumored to have been the invention of a member of the Conservative Party, fellow Labour Party colleague Peter Kilfoyle recently took responsibility.