There has been much speculation on the blogs about the motives behind David Cameron’s decision yesterday to anoint William Hague his deputy; thereby slighting his old chum George Osborne. Was it as Ben Brogan muses a prelude to bringing back Ken Clarke? A sop to Hague ahead of a crack down on front bench outside interests? Or payback for Osborne’s former indiscretion over his yachting holiday last summer?
The return of many of Labour’s big beasts to the government in recent months is no doubt one reason for the Tory leader’s decision to shake up his shadow team. But while Gordon Brown’s handling of his front-bench manoeuvres has proved remarkably deft – including his masterstroke of bringing Peter Mandelson back over from the EU last October – the speculation surrounding Cameron’s own shadow cabinet reshuffle appears in danger of getting out of hand.
As Tim Montgomerie reports on ConservativeHome yesterday speculation surrounding the reshuffle is “undermining the morale of some frontbenchers who already feel excluded from the small circle around David Cameron”. And while the Tory leader can probably count on his old ally the shadow chancellor to bite his lip in spite of his apparent demotion, the same cannot be said of the rest of the front bench team, whose affection for Cameron is unlikely to have been strengthened by reports of his concerns over their lack of media nous. Perhaps most damagingly of all, by allowing rumours about the return of Clarke to run away Cameron risks setting a firecracker under the Tory right that could reopen the festering wound of the party’s relations with Europe.
So while Labour gets on with the job of government and fixing the economy, the Tories end up squabbling amongst themselves. More grist to the mill of Labour’s characterisation of the Conservatives as the ‘do nothing’ party ….
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