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 Single European Currency, as 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 had the third smallest majority of any Labour MP, at just 97 votes. The result was so close that the final declaration had to be delayed until two days after voting, to give exhausted counting officials time to rest. In May 2005, Rammell was made Minister of State for Higher Education. He was strongly supportive of top-up fees, claiming that without the income from such fees, estimated to be £1.4 billion, it would be necessary to put "3p or 4p on the standard rate of tax" or "put up income tax by 3%". In September 2007, he withdrew funding from some adult and continuing education courses in universities. 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, this time in the role of 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 bomberAbdelbaset 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. On 13 April 2012, it was announced Rammell was to become the new Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire, taking up his post in August 2012 for the start of the new academic year. He had previously worked for Plymouth University as Deputy Vice-Chancellor with responsibility for student experience and internationalisation.
Personal life
Rammell married Beryl Jarhall on 1 January 1983. They have a son and a daughter.
