Veteran Conservative and former chancellor Kenneth Clarke will be justice secretary in the Tory-Lib Dem coalition government, it was announced this morning. He will also be lord chancellor.

The 69-year-old is a former barrister, having been called to the bar by Gray’s Inn in 1963 and becoming QC in 1980. He has practised on the Midland Circuit, based in Birmingham. Clarke was formerly shadow business secretary.

Clarke’s appointment to the justice portfolio will be viewed as a surprise, with former shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve QC overlooked for the job. Grieve has been made attorney general.