Eagle digs her talons into government's disability shake-up

'Longer, tougher and harder' is how junior minister Maria Eagle describes life as an MP compared to being a solicitor.

Elected in 1997, the member for Liverpool Garston is now junior minister in the Department for Work and Pensions, and her own workload is ratcheting up, she says.Her background as a lawyer helps.

Ms Eagle worked with three Liverpool firms - Brian Thompson & Partners, Goldsmith Williams, and Steven Irving & Co - on claimant personal injury, trade union, employment and housing cases.Skills such as handling and managing heavy paperwork and 'not letting it get on top of you' are very transferable, she says.But more importantly, she maintains that understanding statutory interpretation helps.

'A general knowledge of the law is useful when you're legislating - enabling you to concentrate on what's important and what's not.

It's a skill I certainly use.'Ms Eagle has been given special responsibility for the disabled.

This might seem the kind of job where you can keep your head down and earn useful 'caring and sharing' brownie points.

But two weeks into its new term, the cabinet fired a broadside at the disability benefit regime, signalling major reforms.Ms Eagle may need to learn that essential ministerial skill - how to eat a hot potato very quickly, or push it quietly onto someone else's plate - quicker than she thought.She welcomes the potential higher-profile such an issue brings: 'I don't think anyone in politics wants to keep their heads down.

I certainly don't flinch from controversy.'Her background as a solicitor is important to Ms Eagle's identity in another way too, as one of the few key differences marking her out from her identical twin sister - Angela Eagle - who is minister of state in the Home Office.Both women attended the same school, played chess to the same high standard, went to Oxford together, and are now both in government.

Ms Eagle says: 'Up until I did my law exams, I had always studied with my sister.

We had always revised together and worked in the same way.

It was the first time I did something that Angela hadn't also done.'Ms Eagle may prefer politics to being a lawyer, but she sees a common thread running through her career.

'Litigating for plaintiffs, you spend much of your time helping people out of problems.

I see my political role very much in this light, helping people out.

There is huge scope for this in my role as minister for the disabled, except it gives the opportunity to do it on more than just an individual basis.''I am not ambitious for myself.

That [helping other people] has always motivated me, both as a lawyer and as an MP.'But she admits that both she and her sister are 'very driven', and Ms Eagle plays the difficult questions with a straight bat.Which job in politics would she like best? 'They are all interesting - they all make a difference to people's lives.'If her sister became prime minister, would she accept an offer to serve in her cabinet? 'That's a horribly hypothetical situation - but I think Angela would make a great cabinet minister.'Jeremy Fleming