I thought Patricia Hewitt was more or less in the frame....
Ahh yes, she late of Andersen Consulting,who fiddled while Rover and MG went down the toilet (thanks to a barking mad decision made a few years ago by Byers).
Who would be an acceptable choice from the shop-floor perspective?
Anything is an improvement on the detested BuffHoon, but I recall that George Robertson had a reasonable reputation as SoS. There must be some heavy-hitters out there that would take an interest in the MoD rather than just pretending everything is OK and the toybox isn't empty...