Monday, 06 October 2008 10:22
Gay MP Chris Bryant has been appointed Deputy Leader of the Commons in the reshuffle of junior ranks.The former Church of England clergyman earned himself the nickname Captain Underpants after he circulated a photograph of himself along with sexually explicit messages on a gay website.
The image of Mr Bryant, a keen triathlete, showed him apparently taking a picture of himself in a bathroom mirror, wearing only a pair of Y-fronts.
The Rhondda MP, pictured, who ran Miss Harman's successful deputy leadership campaign last year, was forced to apologise for the 2003 episode. His promotion is seen as reward for his role in helping to oust Tony Blair in 2006.
Others involved in the Brownite conspiracy are also among the winners. Backbencher Sion Simon becomes Skills Minister, while Tom Watson is given a beefed-up role within the Cabinet Office.




The head of the UK Border Agency has enraged human rights groups after stating that gay asylum seekers should not be allowed to stay in Britain simply because their sexual orientation is outlawed in the country they have fled.
Shaven-headed and tattooed all over with skinhead emblems and the symbols of Ulster loyalism, Sam 'Skelly' McCrory was once regarded as one of the most dangerous terrorists in Western Europe.
Equal rights for gay couples, a divisive issue in the 2004 U.S. presidential election, produced a rare moment of agreement in Thursday's vice presidential debate between Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Sarah Palin.
Prospective parliamentary candidate Margot James believes the Conservative Party really has changed its attitude to homosexuality - not just in the Cameroonian salons of fashionable Notting Hill but in the rural heartlands as well.
Bosnia's first gay festival will close early after hooded men, some shouting Islamic slogans, attacked visitors on its opening night, injuring eight people, organizers said on Thursday.