Esther McVey remains in role but invited to cabinet table

At the 2002 Conservative Party conference, a young would-be MP joked that she was often asked "What's a nice girl like you doing in a party like this?".

More than a decade later, and four years after making it to the Commons at the second attempt, that party has given Esther McVey a seat at the Cabinet table.

As the owner of two rare assets among her peers - being both a woman and from the north of England - she was widely tipped for a more prominent role.

But the Prime Minister has chosen instead to hand her the right to attend Cabinet meetings in her present job as Employment Minister.

Her background as a television presenter has already seen her become a valuable media performer, especially as the public defender of benefit cuts and the so-called "bedroom tax".

But as a law graduate, the founder of her own business and the author of a careers guide for girls that proved so popular it was turned into a play, Ms McVey has many other strings to her bow.

The Liverpool-born 46-year-old began her career as a BBC trainee in 1991, going on to present and produce programmes on the law, consumer issues and science for it and other networks, with her most prominent role being as a regular presenter on the GMTV breakfast show sofa.

In 2000 she quit the media to establish her firm finding office space and providing training for start-ups and went on to set up Winning Women, the North West's biggest network for female business leaders.