CAROL Ann Duffy will be named as the new Poet Laureate today - the first female laureate in the post’s 341-year history.

Duffy will succeed Andrew Motion, who has held the post since 1999.

The official announcement will by made by Culture Secretary Andy Burnham in Manchester, where Duffy lives and works.

The 53-year-old will become the latest in a line of poets which began with John Dryden and has included such great names as William Wordsworth, Alfred Lord Tennyson and John Betjeman.

Other possible candidates for the £5,000-a-year job included Huddersfield's own Simon Armitage, Roger McGough and Benjamin Zephaniah.

The laureate is officially appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Government and until Tony Blair established a 10-year tenure in 1999, was a job for life.

Part of the laureate’s remit is to write poems to commemorate major state occasions and events involving the Royal Family - a task which Motion said he found extremely difficult.

His poem in the style of a rap for Prince William’s 21st birthday is unlikely to feature in any future anthologies of English verse, but Motion said he was pleased with works he produced for the Queen Mother’s 100th birthday and the wedding of the Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker-Bowles.

Earlier this week Motion said he was "relieved" to be leaving the job.

Duffy, who was born in Glasgow, was the favourite throughout the six-month selection process, which included input from the public for the first time.

She was in the running for the job when it was given to Motion but missed out amid rumours that r Mr Blair was worried how "Middle England" would react to a lesbian laureate.

The announcement will be made at Manchester University’s John Rylands Library.