Baroness Jay, leader of the Lords, has the task of steering the biggest constitutional shake-up of the century through the upper house.
Lady (Margaret) Jay (59) is the daughter of the former Labour prime minister, Lord Callaghan. She was appointed last summer by the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, to take the highly controversial reform through the Lords.
She had to tell the hereditary peers, politely but firmly, last autumn that it was time to say "Thank you and goodbye". Their services were no longer needed under Labour's modernising agenda.
Tall, blond and no stranger to personal controversy, Lady Jay is a former deputy leader of the Lords and a former health minister.
She was educated at Blackheath High School and Somerville College, Oxford, and her first husband was Peter Jay, BBC economics correspondent, whom she married in 1961. They moved to Washington in the 1970s when he became Britain's ambassador there.
It was Lady Jay's well publicised affair with the Watergate journalist, Carl Bernstein, during their time in the US that put her firmly in the spotlight, and she has rarely been out of the headlines since.
The affair was used by Bernstein's wife, Nora Ephron, as the basis for a novel and the Hollywood film Heartburn.
Lady Jay's first marriage ended in divorce in 1986.
Now married to Prof Michael Adler, an AIDS specialist, Lady Jay had a successful television career, including a stint as a reporter on Panorama. She pioneered a campaign about the dangers of HIV as director of the National Aids Trust and sat on various health trust boards.
She was made a peer in 1992 and served as opposition whip in the Lords during the last parliament. Her friends include the Health Minister, Ms Tessa Jowell, and the Education Minister, Baroness Blackstone.
She has impeccable New Labour credentials, although she grew up in the Old Labour era. She emphasises her commitment to the Blairite project.
Describing herself as a "moderniser", Lady Jay has the glamorous west London champagne lifestyle to match.