Jack, the Africa U-turn and the great 'by-election escape'

JACK McConnell insisted last night he was "delighted" to take up his new part-time role as a special envoy for the Prime Minister – despite missing out on his cherished ambition of going to Malawi as the UK's next high commissioner.

Last summer, Mr McConnell resigned as Scottish Labour leader on the understanding he would become the new High Commissioner to Malawi, either at the end of this year or at the start of 2009.

He has now been told by Gordon Brown that this will not happen, at least not before 2011. Instead Mr McConnell has been given a part-time, unpaid role as a "special representative" on conflict resolution.

Opposition parties said it was a desperate move by Mr Brown to avoid a by-election in Mr McConnell's Motherwell and Wishaw constituency. He had expected to resign his seat next spring, triggering a by-election, but that will not happen now.

The former First Minister insisted privately that he had made sure he was being given a "real job" before he accepted it and said he intended to make a real difference. But Labour insiders claimed Mr McConnell had been "stitched up" by the Prime Minister and had been given a "non job" simply to make sure there was no by-election.

They pointed to the continuing level of distrust between Mr McConnell and his successor Wendy Alexander, one of Mr Brown's close allies in Scotland, and suggested the Prime Minister's decision to prevent him going to Malawi was "payback" for Mr McConnell's approach to Ms Alexander.

Mr McConnell and Mr Brown have never been close allies, and one Labour insider said that not only did the Prime Minister resent the way Mr McConnell had treated Ms Alexander, but he also blamed him for losing last year's Scottish Parliament elections. Another senior Labour source claimed Mr McConnell had been "holding out for a peerage" and that he wanted to be en-nobled before taking on the African posting, but that hope had also now been dashed.

Mr McConnell rejected claims he had been insisting on a place in the House of Lords. "I have never asked anyone for a peerage," he said.

The former first minister said he had been offered a "serious job" and was happy to accept it.

"I am delighted to take up this challenge for the Prime Minister. Having visited Rwanda in the last year and seen the devastation caused by international conflict, I know that it is a serious job to deal with serious issues," he said.

And he pledged: "I will give it all of the attention and energy it deserves."

He stressed that he would continue his long-standing involvement with Malawi.

"I have managed to carry out a considerable amount of voluntary work to help Scots who are helping in Malawi over the past year and this position will allow me to continue to do that," he said.

Mr McConnell went on: "I have received considerable representations from people in Motherwell and Wishaw asking me to stay on and do the job they elected me to do, and I am pleased that they will be reassured that the will now happen."

Alex Salmond, however, was dismissive of the reasons behind Mr McConnell's new role.

The First Minister said: "Jack McConnell was offered the post in Malawi because of his interest and involvement in the country, not because he was a professional diplomat. But this seems like creating a post simply to avoid a by-election."

He added: "This is blatant political manipulation in order to avoid defeat in a by-election."

Angus Robertson, the SNP leader at Westminster, said that the Prime Minister's decision to appoint somebody to the critical position of special envoy on conflict resolution for just one day a week "beggars belief".

He said he was writing to Mr Brown, asking him to clarify the role, the extent of Mr McConnell's responsibilities and what the Prime Minister expected him to do on one day a week.

Mr Robertson, who brought representatives from Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan together in Scotland for conflict resolution talks in 2003, said Mr Brown's idea was "beyond credibility".

He said: "Anybody who is involved in this area of conflict resolution will tell you how important personal relationships are, and nobody can do anything effective on one day a week.

"Jack McConnell will have to do this on top of serving the people of Motherwell and Wishaw."

But Jim Murphy, the new Scottish Secretary, dismissed suggestions that Mr McConnell had been given his new role simply to avoid a potentially damaging by-election.

He said: "I worked in the Foreign Office and Jack is going to be working on some big issues the Foreign Office deals with – conflict prevention, conflict reconstruction.

"And its a great thing that a fellow Scot, a former first minister, is now going to be doing such substantial work on reconstruction in Africa."

Mr Murphy said he knew some opposition politicians were criticising Mr McConnell's new role and this was just an example of how "petty" Scottish politics could be. "Jack McConnell will do a great job for the UK," he said.

Banging drum for peace – but with no pay

JACK McConnell has been appointed the Prime Minister's special envoy on conflict resolution.

The former Scottish Labour leader's new post means he will be working with the United Nations, the European Union and other bodies to create proposals for more effective international intervention to help rebuild war-torn countries such as Rwanda, Bosnia and Kosovo.

He will be asked to put forward proposals on how the global community should intervene between nations following conflicts and initiate the process of redevelopment.

But all this will have to be achieved with no salary and little time.

Mr McConnell's job will be part-time – one day a week – and he will not be paid for it. For the other four days, he will continue his duties as the Labour MSP for Motherwell and Wishaw and vote in the Scottish Parliament where his vote is crucial to his party in the minority parliament.

The lack of time and money attached to the job has led critics to suggest that it is a "non job" and was only created to avoid a potentially difficult by-election, had Mr McConnell stepped down.

A master fixer who put party in order

BORN and brought up on Arran, Jack McConnell was a maths teacher before going into full-time politics.

The 48-year-old was a reforming politician when he led Stirling Council, but it was as general secretary of the Scottish Labour Party that he started making his name.

In 1992, at the age of only 32, he took over the senior job in the Scottish party when it was suffering – morale was at rock bottom and the party was in internal chaos.

Mr McConnell increased its membership from 16,000 to 30,000, and as a master fixer and king of the wheeler-dealers, helped to unify and modernise the party.

His two key political moves at this time were to back Tony Blair over Gordon Brown for the UK party leadership – something the current Prime Minister has never forgotten – and to help Mr Blair drive through the scrapping of clause four of Labour's constitution, which related to nationalisation.

He became a Labour MSP in 1999, becoming Donald Dewar's finance minister in the first administration. After standing against Henry McLeish for the Labour leadership in 2000, Mr McConnell became education minister.

He did well in what was seen as a tricky job and was the clear front-runner to succeed Mr McLeish when he resigned in 2001. Mr McConnell took over both Scottish Labour and the Scottish Executive in 2001, and went on to win the 2003 election, which gave him the mandate he wanted.

As First Minister, he championed a drive against sectarianism and a new fund to help Malawi – a country he visited in 2005. He also introduced proportional representation for local government and brought in the smoking ban before losing the 2007 election by one seat to the SNP.

He did not quit immediately after last year's election but hung on while he negotiated his future. He thought that had been settled when he was offered the high commissioner's job in Malawi, but, as he now knows, that was not as easy or as sorted as he first thought.