JACK Straw insisted he felt ‘great’ after his 13-year Cabinet career came to an end.

The Blackburn MP has been replaced as Justice Secretary by Conservative Ken Clarke, and yesterday he was at Buckingham Palace to return the Great Seal, a ceremonial requirement of his former Lord Chancellor role.

The formation of the UK’s first coalition government since the Second World War, between the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties, has sent Mr Straw back to the opposition benches for the first time since 1997.

Alongside Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling, he is the only person to have had an unbroken run in the Cabinet since Labour swept to power 13 years ago, having also served as Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons.

He said: “I feel extraordinarily pleased to have had such a good innings.

“I am not sad at all. I can’t do this job for ever, so as a matter of fact it feels great.

"I loved every minute of government, but it’s hard work.”

Mr Straw knows Mr Clarke well, having first encountered him in 1979 at his first ever meeting as an MP, when the Tory veteran was a junior transport minister.

In line with previous General Elections, Mr Straw, who retained his Blackburn seat last week with an increased majority, had already cleared his desk at the Ministry of Justice’s Petty France offices before the campaign started.

But he will throw a party for civil service staff, a tradition for departing ministers.

His final act as Justice Secretary came on Monday, when he signed paperwork authorising the transfer of a prisoner who was being held in a British dependency to this country.

He was also at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday afternoon, just before Gordon Brown resigned, at a Privy Council meeting.

Mr Straw insisted his influence in lobbying for Blackburn and East Lancashire within government would still be strong, despite being in opposition, adding: “It is not the party label that makes the difference, it is the strength of the advocacy”.

The MP yesterday repeated he would not challenge for the Labour Party leadership, as revealed by Lancashire Telegraph a week ago, and would not confirm who he was backing.