Tony Blair has recast the government in his own image with a top-to-bottom shakeup of his junior and middle ranking ministers.

He moved to throw off the lingering view of Labour as a party still looking like an opposition by dumping a handful of old faces and annointing some new rising stars.

For the second day running, he showed he was ready to play the hard man if needed to transform Labour into the government he wanted.

He again favoured Blairite loyalists over so-called Brownies, supporters of Chancellor Gordon Brown. And he again signalled that welfare reform was a top priority.

In a separate move, he also increased his grip on the levers of power with the creation of a new unit based in the Cabinet Office which will progress-chase policy right across Whitehall.

The Performance and Innovation Unit will come under the responsibility of new cabinet �enforcer� Jack Cunningham and was immediately attacked for centralising power into the Prime Minister's hands.

Blair in charge

The second-tier reshuffle was another clear sign that Mr Blair was reminding his party that, despite all the rumours of splits, he is running the show.

He refused to give into opposition demands to axe controversial ministers Geoffrey Robinson and Tony Lloyd who have both recently been cleared of any wrongdoing.

He promoted two former aides to his predecessor Neil Kinnock - Charles Clarke and Patricia Hewitt - in a clear signal to his huge parliamentary party that there is room for others to rise to the top.

And he moved to beef up the party's operation in Scotland by making highly-respected political operator Helen Liddell deputy to Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar.

She will be also have the job of campaign coordinator to tackle the Scottish Nationalists, who have seen a massive boost in their poll ratings in the wake of the devolution vote.

Focus on welfare reform

The promotion of John Denham to the key job as deputy at the department of social security again underlined Mr Blair's determination to kick-start welfare reforms.

Dr Cunningham will also get an assistant to help him enforce government policy in Whitehall.

Lord Falconer, a close friend of the Prime Minister's, has been promoted from his job as solicitor general to the cabinet office with the specific task of strengthening Dr Cunningham's arm.

'Talent and ability'

There are new faces in virtually every government department and Dr Cunningham summed up the aim of the changes, while also playing down talk that Chancellor Gordon Brown's influence had been limited.

�The prime minister has brought in people of talent and ability, not on the basis of whose friends they happen to be, but because they are the people he wants� he said.

The reality is that Tony Blair has the front bench team he wants - not the one he inherited from opposition - and he is determined to shakeup the government's performance which has drifted over the past few months.