1.   He was a few weeks short of his fiftieth birthday, a somewhat elderly Junior minister.

2.   Mrs Thatcher duly sacked the Junior minister, space enthusiast Geoffrey Pattie.

3.   Smith, admitting he had an unreported business relationship with the department store owner, resigned as Junior minister for Northern Ireland.

4.   The job of producing a development program was assigned to the Junior minister.

5.   Two junior ministers, Joseph Toney and Senator Hochoy Charles, were assigned to the Security Ministry following the July coup attempt.

6.   The absence of specific privatization measures was strongly criticized, as was the inclusion in the Cabinet of former junior ministers and other leading figures from the communist era.

7.   He had previously been a junior minister at the Department of Energy and financial secretary to the Treasury.

8.   Chester College is pressing to be allowed the title of university college, but its hopes appeared to have been dashed last month by education junior minister Tim Boswell.

9.   Mrs Harker said she had contacted Michael Fallon, Darlington MP and DES junior minister, seeking his advice.