FACTBOX - Peter Hain resigns from government

(Reuters) - Peter Hain resigned from government on Thursday following a decision to refer questions over campaign funding to the police. He denies any wrongdoing.

Here are some key facts about Hain

* EARLY YEARS:

-- Born in Nairobi, Kenya, on February 16, 1950 and brought up in South Africa, Hain came to Britain in 1966 as a teenager after his parents were forced out of white-ruled South Africa for opposing apartheid.

-- He too campaigned against apartheid. He disrupted a 1969 South African rugby tour and joined protests leading to a cricket series being cancelled the following year.

-- He joined the Labour Party in 1977 and worked as a trade union official until he was elected as member of parliament for the Neath constituency in Wales in April 1991.

* THE CABINET:

-- In October 2002 he was promoted into the cabinet as secretary of state for Wales after several years in junior ministerial posts. He was also Leader of the House of Commons.

-- In May 2005 he was appointed Northern Ireland Secretary, while retaining his Welsh portfolio. He oversaw the declaration of the IRA's commitment to the political process in Northern Ireland and the decommissioning of its arms.