Cocktails and chauffeurs await as McConnell looks ahead to African posting

The house is the property of the British government and is the official residence of the High Commissioner of Malawi.

Mr McConnell will take on that post in 2009, earning a six-figure salary in sterling - the equivalent of 278 million Malawian kwacha every year when the average salary there is 91,462 kwacha or 329.

The former First Minister will no doubt enjoy being driven again by chauffeurs, though this time he will use Foreign Office Range Rovers with a Union flag on the front rather than the ministerial Vauxhalls he was used to in Scotland.

He will also have staff to cook his food and clean the house, which has two wide rooms at the front, perfect for the sort of cocktail parties he will get used to, as well as 15 Foreign Office staff at the High Commission itself.

High Commissioners are the British equivalent of ambassadors to Commonwealth countries.

Mr McConnell will be the Queen's senior representative in Malawi. He will liaise with the Malawian government and pursue Britain's interests in the southern African country.

Britain injects millions of pounds in aid into Malawi every year and part of his job will be to make sure it is well spent.

Mr McConnell has always had an interest in Africa and in education, combining the two to focus on Malawi soon after he won the election in 2003.

He decided that Scotland should direct its limited aid effort to this poorest of southern African countries, believing that a lot could be achieved there with the right effort.

Mr McConnell twinned Scotland with Malawi and made a high-profile visit there two years ago, which resulted in close links being forged between the two governments.

The former First Minister will spend the next couple of years working for the Clinton Hunter Development Initiative in Malawi and Rwanda, so he will be well versed in the problems there by the time he takes over.

However, there is a little irony in a politician whose principal achievement was to bring in a ban on smoking in public buildings going to a country where the main crop is tobacco.

There was also some confusion last night as to when Mr McConnell will take over.

The current High Commissioner, Richard Wildash, is due to end his tour early in 2009 and the Foreign Office said last night that though there was some flexibility, Mr McConnell would be expected in post shortly after Mr Wildash leaves.

If that was to happen, Mr McConnell would have to leave the Scottish Parliament in 2009, prompting a by-election in his constituency of Motherwell and Wishaw.

With the parliamentary arithmetic so tight and the SNP doing so well, that is not something Labour leaders welcome.

A solution might be for Mr McConnell to stand down just before the next UK general election, so that his Holyrood by-election is on the same day - giving Labour a good chance of hanging on to the seat.

Gordon Brown announced the appointment yesterday morning. He said Scotland had developed a special connection with the people of Malawi and said Mr McConnell would be suited to the role of High Commissioner.

Mr McConnell is not the first politician to be given a high-profile diplomatic job without having diplomatic experience.

Paul Boateng, the former Labour minister, is the High Commissioner to South Africa and Helen Liddell, the former Scottish Secretary, is the Governor General of Australia.