Mo Mowlam critically ill in hospital after condition deteriorates

The former Northern Ireland Secretary was diagnosed with a brain tumour eight years ago, but was given the all clear in July 1997. However, her health appeared to worsen in recent months. She was admitted to King's College hospital at the weekend. It was unclear whether her illness was connected to a recurrence of her tumour.

Ms Mowlam, 55, won praise for her engaging style as Northern Ireland Secretary and played an important role in bringing about the IRA ceasefire in 1997, which led to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. She is said to have persuaded the then US President Bill Clinton to intervene with Sinn Fein at a critical stage.She called Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, "babe" during a phone conversation and went into Maze Prison in 1998 to speak to convicted paramilitaries when it became clear the peace process needed their backing.

However, the Ulster Unionists felt alienated by her friendly approach to Sinn Fein andDowning Street took over the talks. Later, she complained about a whispering campaign by No 10 against her, saying that it was being put about that she was "not up to the job, which is absolute rubbish". She upstaged Mr Blair when she was given a spontaneous standing ovation during his Labour Party conference speech in 1998.

A year later, she was demoted to the Cabinet Office, but she remained outspoken, straying beyond Government policy by giving her support to the decriminalisation of cannabis. In spite of being much loved by the party, her relations with the Blair camp deteriorated and, in 2001, she quit the Redcar seat she had won 14 years earlier.

She married Jon Norton, a merchant banker, in 1995. After she left her seat, they moved to Kent, where she wrote several pieces for The Independent. In her autobiography, Momentum, she said: "I always looked on the bright side - one of the characteristics that helped to produce results in Northern Ireland."