Comeback King turns up at No 10

Eyebrows were raised today at the discovery that Oona King (left), the high-flying Labour MP who lost her East London seat to George Galloway in 2005, is now working at Number Ten as a political advisor to Gordon Brown on youth and community cohesion. She is not on the Downing Street payroll, however: she is being paid for by the cash-strapped Labour Party.

Nor is King's name on the list of Brown's official advisers on the Number Ten website. Which is why some Labour MPs are asking, "What exactly is Oona doing?" having spotted her yesterday in the 'advisors' box' during Prime Minister's Questions.

If she is an adviser on the important question of community cohesion and young people, she should surely be worth putting on the payroll for Number Ten. On the other hand, if she is purely there as a Labour Party cheerleader, working entirely in a political role, what is she doing inside Number Ten?

King had been attempting to pursue a new career in the media after losing her seat in the 2005 general election."I wanted to be an MP all my life," she wrote on her website, "and when it didn't work, I thought, well then, I'll just have to go down a different path."

She was a popular MP for Bethnal Green and Bow before Galloway, a leader of the Stop the War Coalition, pounced on her support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which was controversial given her constituency's large Muslim population. The election campaign was nasty, with both King and Galloway - representing the Respect Party - having to ask for police protection. Oona King lost the seat by a narrow margin of 823 votes, overturning her previous majority of 10,000.  A request for a recount was denied.

King subsequently changed her mind about the Iraq mission, after witnessing the Bush administration's poor handling of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. She said: "I regret that we went to war with a country that has shown itself to be incapable of the very basic actions required to deal with post-conflict reconstruction." Her website makes no mention of hew new position at Number Ten. ·