[1] He was educated at Westcliff High School for Boys and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he joined the Conservative, Liberal and Labour Associations[1] and gained a BA in 1976 and a BCL 1978.

In the reshuffle following the 2005 general election (in which his majority fell to just over 6,000), he was made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, replacing his close friend and former flatmate, Alan Milburn.

Hutton was seen as one of Tony Blair's closest supporters but survived in cabinet following Blair's resignation in June 2007 and was moved by new Prime Minister Gordon Brown to be Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, which incorporated the bulk of portfolios from the now dissolved Department of Trade and Industry, including Energy security issues which many had expected to be ceded to DEFRA.

[citation needed] In September 2006, while discussing the forthcoming Labour Party leadership election, Hutton gave an anonymous quote to BBC journalist Nick Robinson that Gordon Brown would be a "fucking disaster" as prime minister.

[4] Hutton gave evidence to the Iraq Inquiry about his role as Defence Secretary on 25 January 2010, the same day as his predecessor, Des Browne.

[5] On 27 June 2010, he was created a life peer as Baron Hutton of Furness, of Aldingham in the County of Cumbria,[6] and was introduced in the House of Lords on 1 July 2010,[7] where he sits on the Labour benches.

[citation needed] It was also announced in June 2010, that the Conservative – Lib Dem coalition had asked him to head a commission into public sector pensions.

[10] On 19 June 2011, Hutton rejected claims by trade unionists and Labour colleagues that he had been used as a 'stooge' by the government and dismissed speculation regarding his motives for accepting the coalition's invitation.

[16] In it, Hutton gives a "graphic insight into the daily routine and grim reality of warfare on the Western Front for men who were mostly recruited from the Furness area of the North-West.