The Rt Hon Jack Straw MP was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on 8 June 2001. Mr Straw has been the Member of Parliament for Blackburn since 1979.
Mr Straw was born in 1946 and educated at Brentwood School, Essex and Leeds University. He was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1972 and worked as a barrister until 1974. He then worked in a variety of jobs, as a special adviser, in television and in local government. He was Shadow Home Secretary from 1995 to 1997 and Home Secretary from 1997-2001.
Within the Foreign Office, Jack Straw is responsible for: overall work of the Office; Communications; Parliamentary Relations; Directorate for Strategy and Information; Legal Advisers; Information Management Department; Research Analysts; Honours; Whitehall Liaison Department.
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Speeches, interviews, statements, press conferences
Video extracts of recent press conferences and speeches
Jack Straw welcome video message (VID, 300K) Joint Press Conference between Jack Straw and the Greek Foreign Minister, Petros Molyviatis - 56K VERSION (22/07/04) (VID, 1MB) Joint Press Conference between Jack Straw and the Greek Foreign Minister, Petros Molyviatis - DUAL ISDN VERSION (22/07/04) (VID, 2.1MB) Video of joint press conference between Jack Straw and Ahmed Qurei Abu Ala, (08/03/04) (VID, 128k) Video of Jack Straw and Silvan Shalom press conference, (02/03/04) (VID, 128K) Video of Jack Straw launching Hajj Delegation, (19/01/04) (VID, 128k)