He's a moderate moderate." It is a four word description that a friend of more than twenty years says best sums up Lord Adonis, the peer who has been appointed by the Chancellor George Osborne as the head of the new National Infrastructure Commission (NIC).
Andrew Adonis is not your typical politician. His political career began as a councillor for the Social Democratic Party in the 1980s, a new outfit formed by Labour types who felt their party was drifting too far to the left. He later became a Liberal Democrat and was selected to fight a parliamentary seat for them, before quitting and joining the Labour Party.
He became Tony Blair's head of policy, was given a seat in the House of Lords as Lord Adonis of Camden Town, and then became a schools minister and then transport secretary. But he will now sit on the crossbenches in the House of Lords - alongside independent peers, without a party political affiliation - whilst he chairs the NIC.
It is a CV which suggests a loose affiliation to any political party, although his friends point out he remains a member of the Labour Party even though he won't be sitting with his Labour colleagues in the Upper House.