Greg Beales, health adviser to the prime minister

Gordon Brown’s health adviser has a distinctly different career pedigree from those chosen by Tony Blair. He has no professional NHS experience, nor is he an academic. He came from the Cabinet Office and before that, management consultants Accenture.

However, Mr Beales is a previous habitue of Number 10. Formerly with the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit under Blair, Mr Beales’ work on choice, contestability and greater use of the private sector continued the Simon Stevens/Julian Le Grand tradition.