WANTAGE MP Ed Vaizey was tonight appointed as a minister in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in the new Government.

Until last week's General Election Mr Vaizey had been a Conservative Party shadow minister for culture, responsible for the arts and broadcasting policy, since November 2006.

He was first elected to Parliament in 2005 to represent the Wantage constituency, which also includes Didcot, Faringdon and Wallingford.

He was re-elected last week with a majority of 13,547 votes, up from 8,017 in 2005.

Mr Vaizey is expected to remain in charge of arts and broadcasting policy, working alongside the new Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Hugh Robertson, who will be in charge of sport and the 2012 Olympics, and John Penrose, the new tourism minister.

  • Nick Hurd, the son of former Witney MP and Foreign Secretary Lord Douglas Hurd, has been appointed as a minister in the Cabinet Office. He is the Conservative MP for Ruislip, in north-west London.