Bolton West MP Ruth Kelly is a rising star in the New Labour Government. Alan Calvert popped into her constituency headquarters in Horwich for a chat.

JUGGLING a top job in the Government with three young children does not seem to faze the Labour MP for Bolton West. Ruth Maria Kelly, who is still only 34, became Financial Secretary to the Treasury in the ministerial re-shuffle which followed the recent resignation of beleaguered Transport Secretary Stephen Byers.

The salary is nearly £90,000 a year and a chauffeur-driven car whisks her between her London home and her Treasury office, which is apparently large and impressive.

She has been tipped in some quarters as a future Chancellor of the Exchequer, but says she is "bewildered" by such a notion.

As I chatted to her in the more down-to-earth environment of her constituency office in Lee Lane, Horwich, I found it very difficult to believe that this intelligent and assured young woman could possibly be bewildered by anything.

Her ministerial responsibilities range over such daunting topics as banking, financial services, insurance, foreign exchange reserves, debt management policy, National Savings, the Royal Mint and helping businesses prepare for European Monetary Union.

It is all extremely high-powered and "incredibly pressured", but she makes sure she also has time for her family and the Bolton West electors. She had a 7,072 majority when she became part of the New Labour landslide in 1997 and won by 5,518 in the last general election.

So what does she think about being labelled as one of "Blair's Babes"?

"I just think it is silly, really," she replied.

You can see her point when you consider what she has achieved so far in her life.

Ruth was born in Limavady, a town in County Derry, Northern Ireland, and lived in various places as the family followed her father Bernard's pharmacy business around Ireland and the UK.

He is now retired and so is her mother Gertrude, a former teacher.

She has two elder brothers who are both doctors.

Her education included a spell at fee-paying Sutton High School in Surrey (an institution similar to Bolton School) and a scholarship to Westminster, a traditional English public school.

She planned to become a doctor when she arrived at Queen's College, Oxford, but switched to philosophy, politics and economics after a term and a half. Although her parents were not in any way political, she says she became politicised during her teens as a result of seeing the rises in unemployment and homelessness which accompanied Margaret Thatcher's time in power.

She joined Labour when she left university and worked for the party in the deprived London borough of Tower Hamlets.

"I wanted to do something practical," she said. "I realised that if you are to change things, politics is the way to do it."

During this period she was involved in anti-racist campaigning and met her future husband, Derek Gadd, who was a local Labour councillor and is now a local government officer with the Association of London Government.

She was also working as a journalist on the Guardian economics desk and completing a part-time MSc in economics at the London School of Economics.

After leaving the Guardian she worked for the Bank of England from 1994 until 1997 -- the year she combined pregnancy with the general election campaign in which she defeated the sitting Conservative MP, Tom Sackville.

Since then she has risen in the party at a rapid rate, serving before her recent promotion as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Agriculture Minister Nick Brown (during the foot and mouth crisis) and Economic Secretary to the Treasury.

She and Derek now have three children -- Eamonn, aged five, Sinead, aged four and Roisin, who will be two in August. When she was first elected she said her interests outside politics were walking, family and chess.

These days it is simply "family".

When I asked her, she found it impossible to say how many hours she worked because she felt she was "never off duty".

She gets to her office at 9am and returns home to put the children to bed at 6.45pm before often returning to the house of Commons for important votes.

Clearly, this is not a regime which fits in very easily with the Government's efforts to encourage firms and workers to achieve a better work-life balance.

She looks forward to seeing some of the reforms of Commons working practices now under consideration.

Genuinely, she enjoys the House of Commons but adds: "It is important to have a life outside Westminster and Parliament."

To that end the family tries to get up to the house in the Bolton West constituency most weekends.

Looking to the future, the new Financial Secretary to the Treasury knows that she will be heavily involved in setting up the timetable if the Government decides to organise a referendum for adopting the European single currency.

But she also appreciates the importance of getting involved in local issues in Bolton and knows that her future political career depends to a great extent on the willingness of the Bolton West electorate to continue electing her as an MP.