member_of_political_party bill taylor 
John Whitaker " Jack " Straw ( born 3 August 1946 ) is an English politician who served as the Member of Parliament ( MP ) for Blackburn from 1979 to 2015 . Straw served in the Cabinet from 1997 to 2010 under the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown . He held two of the traditional Great Offices of State , as Home Secretary from 1997 to 2001 and Foreign Secretary from 2001 to 2006 under Blair . From 2007 to 2010 he served as Lord Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Justice throughout Brown ' s Premiership . Straw is one of only three individuals to have served in Cabinet continuously under the Labour government from 1997 to 2010 , the others being Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling . Alistair Maclean Darling , Baron Darling of Roulanish , PC ( born 28 November 1953 ) is a British ___MASK44___ politician who was a Member of Parliament ( MP ) from 1987 to 2015 , most recently for Edinburgh South West . He was the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 2007 to 2010 , and was one of only three people to have served in the Cabinet continuously from Labour ' s victory in 1997 until its defeat in 2010 , the others being Gordon Brown and Jack Straw . Ribble Valley is a local government district with borough status within the non - metropolitan county of Lancashire , England . The total population of the non - metropolitan district at the 2011 Census was 57 , 132 . Its council is based in Clitheroe . Other places include Whalley , Longridge and Ribchester . The area is so called due to ___MASK11___ Ribble which flows in its final stages towards its estuary near Preston . The area is popular with tourists who enjoy the area ' s natural unspoilt beauty , much of which lies within the Forest of Bowland . Sir Bill Taylor ( born 1952 ) is the former leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council in England and election agent for Blackburn MP and former Justice Minister Jack Straw from 1979 to 2010 . He was Mayor of the Borough of Blackburn from 1989 -- 90 and was knighted in 2003 for services to local government . From its creation in the late 1990s , Blackburn with Darwen was Council of the Year twice . He was approached to assume the role of Chair of 3rd Sector Lancashire to coordinate Lancashire ' s 4 , 500 + voluntary groups . From 2009 till 2013 he chaired the Blackburn with Darwen ground breaking NHS Care Trust Plus . James Gordon Brown , ( born 20 February 1951 ) is a British politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Leader of the ___MASK44___ from 2007 to 2010 . He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Blair Government from 1997 to 2007 . Brown was a Member of Parliament ( MP ) from 1983 to 2015 , first for Dunfermline East and later for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath . Blackburn is a large town in Lancashire , England . It lies to the north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley , east of Preston , NNW of Manchester and north of the Greater Manchester border . Blackburn is bounded to the south by Darwen , with which it forms the unitary authority of Blackburn with Darwen ; Blackburn is its administrative centre . At the time of the UK Government ' s 2001 census , Blackburn had a population of 105 , 085 , whilst the wider borough of Blackburn with Darwen had a population of 140 , 700 . Blackburn had a population of 106 , 537 in 2011 , a slight increase since 2001 . Blackburn is made up of fifteen wards in the Northeast of the surrounding borough . Anthony Charles Lynton Blair , ( born 6 May 1953 ), commonly called Tony Blair , is a British politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and the Leader of the ___MASK44___ from 1994 to 2007 . Together with President George W . Bush in 2003 , he initiated the Iraq War with the invasion of Iraq , an act which remains highly controversial . Her Majesty ' s Principal Secretary of State for Justice is a senior position in the cabinet of the United Kingdom , held in conjunction with the office of Lord Chancellor since it was created in 2007 , replacing the former post of Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs . On 9 May 2007 , the Department for Constitutional Affairs was abolished , and a Ministry of Justice was created in its place . The Ministry of Justice is also responsible for certain functions transferred from the Home Office . Creation . The then Lord Chancellor , Charlie Falconer , was appointed to the post of Secretary of State for Justice on the abolition of his position as Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs . The Home Secretary , John Reid , told Parliament that future Secretaries of State for Justice would be MPs rather than peers . Jack Straw took over this department on 28 June 2007 , following the selection of Gordon Brown as leader of the ___MASK44___ and Prime Minister and left office on the resignation of Gordon Brown after the General Election of 11 May 2010 . He was replaced by Conservative MP Ken Clarke . In the Cabinet reshuffle of August 2012 Chris Grayling MP was promoted to Lord Chancellor and , by convention , Secretary of State for Justice . After the 2015 UK General election , the position was given to former Government Chief Whip Michael Gove MP . Michael Gove was sacked after Theresa May became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on 14 July 2016 and succeeded by Liz Truss .