John Hutton is the MP for Barrow and Furness and Secretary of State for the newly created Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.

Previously he held the Cabinet position of Secretary of State for the Department of Work and Pensions.

He has been MP for Barrow and Furness since 1992 and has previously worked as a minister at the Department of Health from 1998 to 2005.

He was educated at Westcliffe high school in Essex before graduating from Magdalen College in Oxford.

Before entering Parliament he was a senior law lecturer and his hobbies include football, cricket and history.