Liam Byrne replacing Hazel Blears, one of the highest-profile roles in the government outside the cabinet. However, just a fortnight later Home Secretary John Reid moved him to the immigration role, switching portfolios with Tony McNulty. McNulty had been connected with the foreign prisoners scandal that caused Tony Blair to sack Charles Clarke in May 2006. Byrne's move was seen as an attempt by Reid to establish an entirely new team to sort out the immigration system. During this period he was also Minister for the West Midlands. Gordon Brown named him Minister for the Cabinet Office in October 2008, replacing the
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs The position of "Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs" was created in the British governmental reorganisation of 1782, in which the Northern and Southern Departments became the Home and Foreign Offices, respectively. Eventually, the position of "Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs" came into existence in 1968 with the merger of the functions of "Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs" and "Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs" into a single Department of State. The India Office was a constituent predecessor department of the Foreign Office, as were the Colonial Office and the Dominions Office. Post created through the