Rammell joined
Tony Blair's government in October 2002 as an assistant whip but was promoted two weeks later to be a spokesperson for the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Rammell, a pro-European, was supportive of joining the
Euro, and until 2002 he was Chair of Labour Movement for Europe. In September 2004, he was the first British government minister to visit
North Korea. In the
2005 general election, Rammell held his seat with the third smallest majority of any Labour MP, at just 97 votes. The result was not declared until two days after voting, following four recounts. In May 2005, Rammell was made Minister of State for Higher Education. He was strongly supportive of
top-up fees, arguing in 2005 that without such fees it would be necessary to put "3p or 4p on the standard rate of tax". In September 2007, he withdrew funding from some courses teaching
English as a second or foreign language. In February 2008, Rammell announced plans to create a national database of children's school records and exam results which would make up a publicly owned CV. The CV and "Learner Number" would stay with the child throughout adult life until retirement and only the British government would be able to remove records from their database entry. The plan would only have applied to English children, with education being a devolved matter. In October 2008, Rammell returned to the Foreign Office as
Minister of State, and in June 2009, was moved again to the
Ministry of Defence as Minister of State for the Armed Forces. He defended the
Brown government's levels of spending on equipment in
Afghanistan, following a soldier's death because of a lack of available helicopters. In September 2009, Rammell confirmed he had told Libya that the Prime Minister did not want to see convicted
Lockerbie bomber
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who had been serving a
life sentence, die in prison. In October 2009, following
Sir Thomas Legg's audit, Rammell was ordered to repay £2,782 of wrongful expenses claims. In the
2010 general election, Rammell was defeated in Harlow by
Conservative candidate
Robert Halfon, who gained the seat with a majority of 4,925 votes. In August 2012, Rammell was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the
University of Bedfordshire. He held the position until 2019. == References ==