Gordon Brown

Ashdown turns down job in Brown cabinet

Lord Ashdown, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats, was offered a job in Gordon Brown's first cabinet, he said today.

The peer - reportedly offered the position of Northern Ireland secretary - said he refused the job, and would have done so even if he had received the consent of Sir Menzies Campbell, the current party leader.

"It is true that Mr Brown suggested ... that I might take a position in the cabinet," Lord Ashdown said, in a statement sent to the BBC.

very strange behaviour from Gordon Brown, why on earth would he offer the job of Northern Ireland secretary to Paddy Ashdown?

I mean its a step down from being Lord High Sheriff of Bosnia and Herzegovina