Queen Elizabeth II appointed Mr Andrew Motion (47) as poet laureate yesterday ending speculation that a "people's poet" would be created to succeed Ted Hughes.
A statement from Downing Street confirmed that the queen had approved the choice of the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, of the Oxford-educated biographer of Philip Larkin. The appointment is for 10 years, with a salary of u5,000 £5,000 a year.
The statement was delayed until after last week's memorial for Ted Hughes at Westminster Abbey. Welcoming his new responsibilities, Mr Motion described his role as "an extremely complex and interesting challenge" and promised to treat issues of national importance.
Speaking from his home in Islington, north London, Mr Motion said: "I think that I want to honour the traditional responsibilities, to write poems about royal occasions and so on, but I am also very keen to diversify the job, or at least make those poems part of the wider national issues that I also want to write about. I want to make it more widely political."
One of his first commissions is likely to be a poem to celebrate Prince Edward's wedding to Ms Sophie Rhys-Jones this summer.