ConservativeHome's ToryDiary

How will Labour oppose Cameron?

The Conservatives never quite knew how to respond to the Blair phenomenon....

• Should Blair be painted as a left-winger in disguise?  That analysis produced the disastrous New Labour, New Danger devil eyes campaign.
• Or should he be painted as an unprincipled lightweight?  Phoney Tony?
• What about attacking him through the people who he gathers around him?  Mandelson.  Campbell.  Derry Irvine.  Tony's Cronies.

That kind of strategic uncertainty seems to have been inherited by Labour's strategists as they consider how to respond to the arrival of David Cameron:

• Should DC be framed as a smiling frontman for extreme policies on Europe (EPP), the flat tax and marriage?  Labour Chair, the often incomprehensible Ian McCartney, has said: "The Conservatives’ current rebranding exercise is simply putting a new gloss on the same old Tory politics."
• Should DC be presented as lightweight and inexperienced - particularly when set against Gordon Brown?
• Should his Etonian background and Notting Hill set be attacked?  The too-posh-to-understand-real-life attack is certainly being sharpened for possible use against Shadow Chancellor George Osborne who will inherit the Osborne and Little wallpaper fortune.  If there is an economic downturn Labour strategists believe that Brown will be more trusted to get hard-working families out of trouble than a bunch of inexperienced toffs.

Today's Times notes that - predictably - the Blair and Brown camps can't agree on how Mr Cameron might be defeated.

The strongest (and riskiest) attacks on Mr Cameron will be executed by surrogates.  Thursday's Skinner attack on George Osborne may have been a freelance operation but it will certainly be a model for things to come. 

It is undoubtedly true that Labour is worried about David Cameron.  This comes from Martin Bright in this week's New Statesman:

""We realise we are up against a Premiership team now, when we have been dealing with a Championship side so far," is how one senior aide to the Prime Minister described the Tory challenge to me. In the laddish world of new Labour, where football is the lingua franca, this is a considerable compliment to David Cameron. Admittedly, it was followed by a swift qualification: "We are fighting a proper oppo-sition, but it is not Chelsea." Yet Tony Blair's team believes Cameron will give Labour the first real competition it has faced in a decade, and that is a tribute to the 39-year-old newcomer, who has been playing in the top league for only four years."

Policy change must also form part of Labour's response.  Just as many Tories urged John Major to put "clear blue water" between him and the new Labour leader in the mid-1990s some left-wing Labour MPs are urging more redistributive policies in the imminent post-Blair Labour era.

Today's Independent reports suggestions by a former Downing Street adviser, Patrick Diamond, that Labour should make the tax system more progressive: "As Mr Cameron tries to invade Labour's traditional ground on social justice, Mr Diamond says that Labour must show this is incompatible with the Tories' "minimal state" Thatcherite ideology."

Tebbit criticises move to abolish October Conference

The Independent: "Lord Tebbit, the former party chairman, who was injured with his wife, Margaret, when a Brighton conference hotel was bombed in 1984, said he would be saddened by the move.  "I am sad about it because it does seem to me an attempt by the leadership to put distance between itself and the party membership. I think it is another part of the centralising approach to minimise the contact with the grassroots, who tend to be old, which is a sin, and tend to be right-wing, which is also a sin."  Lord Tebbit said the week-long conference was a great social event for the ordinary members to rub shoulders with cabinet ministers in the fuggy atmosphere of the conference hotel bars, or the banquets and dinner-dances organised by the seaside."

David Davis' backyard provides Cameron's first council win

The Guardian: "The Tories made their first council byelection gain of the Cameron era, in the constituency of his leadership opponent David Davis.  Party candidate Mark Preston took East Riding of Yorkshire county council's Howden seat off the Liberal Democrats in a clutch of contests that showed a mixed reaction after the Conservative changeover - with Labour marginally ahead in votes analysis."

Further appointments

John Hayes MP
Shadow Minister for Vocational Education

Boris Johnson MP
Shadow Minister for Higher Education

Stephen O'Brien MP
Shadow Minister for Health

Owen Paterson MP
Shadow Minister for Transport

BJ's appointment will mean that he has to step down from The Speccie.  This was his statement:

"This is a fantastic job and I am thrilled to be given the chance to do it. It is also a very hard job to do properly. It will mean a lot of time and thought.

That is why I will be leaving the Spectator shortly after the Christmas edition has gone to press. Until a new editor is appointed, the magazine will be in the highly-capable hands of my colleague and deputy Stuart Reid. I want to pay tribute to everyone at the magazine who has helped with its current success, in editorial, production and advertising. For the last six-and-a-half years we have had more fun than seems altogether proper.

When Conrad Black gave me the editorship in the summer of 1999, he said he wanted the magazine to be more talked about. I believe we have discharged that obligation beyond his wildest dreams.  We have won all sorts of prizes. We have broken all sorts of stories. This Christmas the circulation of the magazine stands at about 70,000, an all-time high. I am also grateful to our proprietors, the Barclay family, and Andrew Neil, our chief executive, for their kindliness and support. But my particular thanks go to everyone at the Spectator, especially to
Stuart Reid.

For most of my time here I have been propelled by their talents, as a fat German tourist may be transported by superior alpinists to the summit of Everest. I am completely confident that they will continue to expand and improve the oldest, best and best-written magazine in the English language."

Spectator chief executive Andrew Neil added:

"Boris has been a wonderful and magnificent editor of The Spectator and we are sorry to lose him; in many ways he will be irreplaceable. But we wish him every success in his political career.

Boris leaves the magazine in better shape than it has ever been in its long and glorious history, both editorially and financially. Sales will hit a record 70,000 this December and the magazine has recorded another healthy profit in 2005. The editorial breadth and quality under his editorship has been unrivalled.

Though he is stepping down as editor I am delighted that Boris will continue to have a close association with The Spectator, including a new column for us in the New Year. As we begin the search for his replacement, I am also delighted that the magazine will be in the reliable and competent hands of Stuart Reid."

New GoldList blog

Click here for more...

John Gummer and Zac Goldsmith to spearhead green Toryism

If observers wanted an early example of the way in which David Cameron might be rejoining the establishment they should look at his approach to the environment.

Interviewed (tieless apparently) on this morning's Today programme, Mr Cameron made a virtue of the fact that his 'environment team' are all respected by Britain's green lobby groups:

• Peter Ainsworth - the new Shadow Environment Secretary - and until now, the Chairman of the Commons' Environmental Audit Committee.
• Oliver Letwin - the inspiration behind David Cameron's environment speech during the leadership race.
• John Gummer (pictured) and Zac Goldsmith - who will be leading lights of the new Policy Group on Quality of Life issues.

Mr Goldsmith - profiled on the new GoldList blog - and Mr Gummer will have responsibility for finding answers to questions of energy policy, the pollution caused by transport methods, the quality of the built environment and industrial emissions.

Mr Cameron told the Today programme that the party was prepared to make tough choices on the environment and it would carefully consider the recommendations of this and the other Policy Groups - when they report in 18 months' time.   

The danger of the Cameron-Letwin approach is that tough, controversial policies will need time to sell and Mr Cameron's long Policy Review process will limit the time for such policies to be sold to the second half of this parliament.  They have decided that the quality of policy ideas must come first.

Not everyone agrees with this 'new-blue-greenery'.  On his EnviroSpin blog, Professor Emeritus Philip Stott has warned that David Cameron cannot "deliver such naive stuff on climate change, while at the same time declaring that he will build more roads and focus on increasing UK competitiveness".

Party Conference is scrapped in package of imminent party reforms

Francis Maude has always been 'the modernisers' moderniser'.  On many previous occasions - as a backbencher - he has called for the Conservative Party to look less white and less male.  He has called for policy changes that show much greater respect for gay people.  He has encouraged more co-operation with Liberal Democrats.  That modernising reputation took a battering during the summer months when he attempted to pass Michael Howard's disenfranchisement of party members in the leadership election.  Since then, however, he has been writing his own ConservativeHome.com blog about a more open Conservative Party.

As David Cameron's Party Chairman Mr Maude has his opportunity to deliver on some of the changes he has always wanted the Conservatives to make.

In today's Telegraph he points the way to three significant changes:

• The replacement of the annual party conference with two weekend mini-conferences in citoies such as Bath, Birmingham, Manchester and Newcastle (taking on an idea originally proposed by David Davis).  Mr Maude: "Party conferences should be more accessible for young working people."  It is not clear if 2006's autumn conference will go ahead.  I'll try and establish that later today.

• The creation of a new disciplinary panel for MPs and candidates.
  

• "An A-list of 120 approved candidates, split 50-50 between men and women, for winnable seats... We need a significantly larger number of women in the seats we're going to win... We're not going to solve it all in one day but we need to signal it's a main priority."

Given the news of this 'A-list', ConservativeHome has brought forward the launch of its GoldList blog for today.  Click here to find out more about this new internet exercise in membership empowerment.

The Young Conservatives

Average age of the Cabinet = 54
Average age of the Shadow Cabinet = 46

This has just come out of CCHQ on appointments...

The following further appointments have been made to the Shadow Cabinet today:

Peter Ainsworth MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Alan Duncan MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry

Cheryl Gillan MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Wales

Chris Grayling MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Transport

Philip Hammond MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

Oliver Heald MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, and Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

Andrew Lansley CBE MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Health

David Lidington MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

Rt Hon Theresa May MP
Shadow Leader of the House of Commons

Andrew Mitchell MP
Shadow Secretary of State for International Development

David Mundell MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland

Caroline Spelman MP
Shadow Secretary of State for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister

Hugo Swire MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

Theresa Villiers MP
Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury

David Willetts MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Skills

The following appointments have also been made today:

Greg Barker MP
Shadow Minister for the Environment

Paul Goodman MP
Shadow Minister for Childcare [in the Treasury Team]

Nick Herbert MP
Shadow Minister for Police Reform

Andrew Robathan MP
Deputy Chief Whip

In addition:

Rt Hon Andrew Mackay MP has been appointed as Senior Parliamentary and Political Adviser to David Cameron.

Rt Hon John Redwood MP will help lead the Policy Group on Economic Competitiveness.

The following Deputy Chairmen of the Conservative Party have been appointed:

Angela Browning MP
Responsibility for organisation and campaigning. 

Bernard Jenkin MP
Responsibility for candidates. 

The following Shadow Ministers have been appointed:

Graham Brady MP
Shadow Minister for Europe

Alistair Burt MP
Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government

Rt Hon Lord Cope of Berkeley
Opposition Chief Whip, House of Lords

Dominic Grieve MP
Shadow Attorney General

Eleanor Laing MP
Shadow Minister for Women and Equality

Desmond Swayne MP has been appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to David Cameron.

***

Commenting on his shadow team, Conservative Party Leader, David Cameron said:

"This is a very strong team which draws on all the best talents in the Conservative Party.  I know that together we can address the challenges facing Britain today with energy and confidence so that at the next election we are in a position to take forward a Conservative agenda of hope, optimism and change."

Further appointments will be announced next week.

Still further Shadow Cabinet appointments...

David Lidington (one of Parliament's nicest people) stays at Northern Ireland...

Andrew Lansley (a supporter of David Cameron's retreat on Patient's Passports) stays at Health...

Andrew Mitchell (Davis' leadership campaign manager) stays at International Development...

And, in a spectacular promotion for a new MP, Theresa Villiers becomes Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.  TV was an MEP for six years, however, before being elected for Chipping Barnet in May.  She was also Deputy Leader of the grouping of Tory MEPs.  She supports leaving the EPP.

***

And - outside of the shadow cabinet - Bernard Jenkin MP will oversee Candidates.

The one on the left was the future once

This is the latest Private Eye frontpage.

Further Shadow Cabinet news...

David Willetts to Education...
Alan Duncan to DTI...
Chris Grayling to Transport...
Theresa May to Leader of the House...
Oliver Heald stays at Constitutional Affairs.

The Beast of Bolsover accuses Osborne of snorting cocaine

BBCi:

"Labour MP Dennis Skinner has been banned from the Commons for the rest of Thursday for accusing shadow chancellor George Osborne of snorting cocaine.  The claim came as Mr Osborne took on ministers at Treasury questions.  Referring to the 1980s, Mr Skinner said: "The only thing that was growing then was the lines of coke in front of Boy George and the rest of the Tories."

Daily Mail:

"Dennis Skinner's Commons outburst against the new Tory team is by no means the first time the MP dubbed the Beast of Bolsover has fallen foul of such rules of Parliamentary behaviour.  In 1992, the plain-speaking scourge of sensitive Speakers - was ejected for calling the, then, Agriculture Minister John Gummer a "little squirt of a minister" and a "wart".  He was also removed for the day by former Speaker Betty Boothroyd in 1995 for accusing ministers of engaging in a "crooked deal" to sell off the coal industry.  In 1981 he was also "named" - the next stage up in the Speakers' disciplinary weaponry - and banned from the chamber for five days."

Start licking your lips for Prescott versus Hague...

The papers are very positive about David Cameron's debut at PMQs yesterday but if you enjoyed Blair Vs Cameron you'll devour Prescott Vs Hague... or, more to the point, Hague will devour Prescott.  David Cameron has announced that Mr Hague, the new Shadow Foreign Secretary, will deputise for him at PMQs.   This also effectively installs Mr Hague as Mr Cameron's Deputy Leader.

Hague's dental work on EPP set to take months

One of the reasons why Kennedy was on the Today programme at 7.20am was that William Hague got the prized 8.10am interview.  The new Shadow Foreign Secretary used the interview to say that his own "hardline" Eurosceptic views of the 2001 election (the BBC's choice of words) were now the common ground of UK politics.  Everyone he said was now against early euro entry and the EU constitution was off the agenda.  He said that he wanted to use his time as Shadow Foreign Secretary to argue for a more competitive Europe.  The economic challenges from the Far East and other emerging economies threatened to engulf the sclerotic eurozone economies.

Mr Hague recently compared a visit to the European Parliament to a visit to the dentist.  He'll have to make a number of such visits to the EU's dentist if he is going to defuse the potentially explosive issue of Tory MEPs leaving the federalist EPP grouping.  Mr Cameron made the pledge during the leadership race but recently said that his Shadow Foreign Secretary would be responsible for negotiating the timetabling of the exit.  Mr Hague told Today's listeners that it was right for Tories to leave a group that supported European policies that we did not share.  He said it would take months not weeks (not years) to explore and negotiate relations with other mainstream European political parties in advance of forming a new European Parliamentary grouping.

It's going to be hard work given the political balance of the Tory grouping in the Parliament.  The European Parliamentary Labour Party are already making mischief with the fact that the newly re-elected leader of the Tory MEPs - Timothy Kirkhope - opposes leaving the EPP.

What does Cameron mean for the LibDems?

I ask this question after hearing Charles Kennedy interviewed on Today at about 7.20am.  Interesting that it was 7.20am - hardly a flattering slot for the leader of Britain's self-styled "real" opposition.

It was an interview about how the LibDems might respond to the arrival of "Cameron's Conservatives".  A package before Kennedy was interviewed made it clear that many of his parliamentary colleagues are concerned at the lazy drift of his leadership since the election - and about his failure to find a way of knitting together the big state liberals like Simon Hughes and the more economically liberal, less excited-about-Brussels, Orange Book LibDems like Mark Oaten.

Although Ferdinand Mount recently noted increasing similarity between LibDem/ Conservative policies, Mr Kennedy insisted that the LibDems were still well-policy-positioned against the Conservatives and he highlighted some key areas of policy difference: tuition fees, Iraq and (nuclear) energy policy.

Interesting that he emphasised policy (as Tony Blair did yesterday at PMQs by pointing to differences with David Cameron on education spending and the Climate Change levy).  The root of the LibDems' appeal has never really been policy, however.  They've always appealed to voters because they themselves have appeared moderate, reasonable, consensual and compassionate.  David Cameron is now claiming all of those qualities for his own leadership. 

The Tories cannot win the next election without making inroads into the LibDem vote.  The hope must be that voters in Twickenham, Romsey and Taunton etc will know that choosing that nice, moderate and hardworking new Tory candidate is the best way of replacing a majority Labour government with a majority alternative government. 

Margaret Thatcher in hospital overnight

BBCi: "Former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher has been taken to hospital after "feeling faint", the Tory party says.  Lady Thatcher, in Downing Street from 1979 to 1990, has suffered from frailer health in recent years but recently held a lavish 80th birthday party.  She will stay overnight at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital but is expected to return home on Thursday.  Following some minor strokes, she has restricted the number of speaking engagements she undertakes."

Clarke to chair Democracy Task Force

conservatives.com:

"David Cameron announced that the Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke QC MP will chair the Democracy Task Force. This will look at the independence of the civil service; the role of political advisers in government; the proper working of Cabinet Government; reform of the House of Lords (in close consultation with the Shadow Leader of the House of Lords); and the ability of Parliament to hold the Government fully to account. The members of this Task Force will be announced in due course. Mr Clarke will speak on these issues from the Front Bench from time to time."

This is a major coup for David Cameron.  He has succeeded in wooing Clarke, IDS and Hague back into centre stage roles.  A very good first day for the new Tory leader (Fox and Rifkind aside).

Join the Conservative Members' Panel

Please click here to join the influential Conservative Members' Panel.  Every month you'll be invited to complete a survey on issues facing the Tory party.  One of its first findings was reported earlier today on this site.

Rifkind returns to backbenches

As some visitors have started to discuss on this earlier thread, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, John Major's last Foreign Secretary, has decided to return to the backbenches.  Sir Malcolm has issued the following statement:

"I am delighted that David Cameron has been elected Leader of the Conservative  Party. He will have my full and unqualified support.

Two weeks ago I indicated to him that it was my intention, over the next two or three years, to concentrate, in Parliament, on foreign policy and on Britain's relations with Europe, with the United States, and with the wider international community. It is essential that the Conservative Party develops a strong, attractive and forward-looking policy on these issues.

I informed David that, in the event of him becoming Leader of the Party, I would be very happy to concentrate on foreign policy from within the Shadow Cabinet if that would be helpful. If, however, he had other plans in regard to this and other senior positions in the Shadow Cabinet, it would be my intention to work for the Party from the backbenches. This is what I now intend to do over the period ahead."

Editor's Comment: "In other words Sir Malcolm wanted to be Shadow Foreign Secretary and has quit the frontbench when the job was given to William Hague.  He cannot realistically have expected to get this job, however.  David Cameron is a supporter of the war in Iraq and he could not have put an opponent of that necessary stage of the war on terror in such a position.  It would have been a recipe for conflict or deadlock.  Sir Malcolm's expectations of such a post were as unrealistic as his leadership bid.  Sir Malcolm has a great brain and he promises to be loyal but I expect him to become a leading critic of Team Cameron's policies on Iraq etc.  With Hague (Foreign Affairs), Fox (Defence), Osborne (Chancellor) and Davis (Home Affairs) there is going to be no retreat on Iraq etc from Cameron's Tories."

First shadow cabinet announcements

Hague is back as Shadow Foreign Secretary...
Osborne stays Shadow Chancellor...
Maude stays Chairman...
Davis stays Shadow Home...

The Davis appointment will be a bitter pill for Liam Fox who has been given defence.

For more see BBCi here.

Cameron sets up six policy groups - and IDS returns

David Cameron has established six "policy groups" to examine six key challenges facing Britain and the world:

• economic competitiveness;
• quality of life (including the environment);
• public service reform;
• security;
• global poverty;
• social justice.

He has launched first group in East London this afternoon - under the chairmanship of Iain Duncan Smith.

Each policy group will have the following basic characteristics:

• It will involve people from outside politics - usually eight on each group.
• There will be no more than two Tory politicians on each group and neither will serve on the frontbench.
• The groups will not set policy but will use the next eighteen months to explore and understand today's problems and their solutions.
• They will not set party policy but will "help inform a policy development process".

David Cameron said:

“Yesterday, I set out the six big challenges facing our country. These challenges are complex and interconnected.  They don’t sit inside simple boxes.  They need serious, long-term thinking.  So that’s exactly what we will do - and the hard work starts today."

Oliver Letwin is expected to coordinate the six policy groups as there will be areas of considerable overlap.

Some frontbenchers are concerned that the process is too long.  They believe that policies need to be sold early to the electorate and these policy groups will mean the party has little to say on important issues for up to eighteen months.  Others fear that the policy groups will enfeeble shadow ministers.  Shadow ministers will be left with the routine parliamentary work whilst the policy committees undertake the sexier, fresher work of policy review.

Breaking News: Davis to stay at Home Affairs

Bad news for Fox if true...

David Cameron and IDS to launch social justice commission this afternoon...

Lots and lots to blog!

DC wnts 2 tlk abt the future

David Cameron has just completed his first PMQs.

Some of his key leadership campaign themes were in evidence...

• Consensual Cameron: His first question was all about his willingness to support Labour's education reforms if they included satisfactory freedoms for schools.  DC described education as the "first issue" on which "we" are going to working together.  Tony Blair said that he welcomed DC's support but challenged him to match Labour's investment commitment to schooling.  In a sign of how Labour intends to caricature DC's 'sharing the proceeds of growth' formulation, he implied (without evidence) that 'sharing' meant half spending increases and half tax cuts. 
• No-Punch & Judy Cameron: In a reminder of the way he took on Paxo during the leadership election DC singled out Labour Chief Whip Hillary Armstrong MP as MPs jeered at him.  He accused her of "shouting like a child" and said that that behaviour was one of the reasons the public didn't respect politicians anymore.
• Green Cameron: His second set of questions focused on climate change.  Confirming his positioning during the leadership election as a Kyoto devotee Mr Cameron encouraged the Prime Minister to recommit himself to Kyoto Mk II.  Tony Blair has recently been moving closer to the Bush/ John Howard position on the environment which emphasises technology.  TB's response to DC was similar to that on education.  He said that he must embrace Labour's Climate Change Levy if he was serious about the environment.

I think I'm right in thinking that DC asked only five of the permissible six questions?

The best soundbite of PMQs came in the first question.  Tory Stephen O'Brien put a question to the "outgoing Prime Minister"!

The best question came from Tory backbencher Shailesh Vara on Darfur.  What did the continuing genocide in that part of Sudan mean for the government's commitment to stop ethnic cleansing?  TB's non-answer was almost as bad as DC's non-answer to ConservativeHome's questionnaire on the subject.

The balance of emailers to BBC's Politics Show gave David Cameron the victory.  Nick Robinson said that DC exhibited extraordinary confidence.  He liked the "You were the future once" jibe at TB.  "I want to talk about the future," the new Tory leader told the Commons.

54% want Davis promoted or left in place

It is not only David Cameron that will be celebrating this morning.  YouGov also predicted the result very accurately. 

As ConservativeHome noted on Saturday - YouGov predicted a 67% to 33% victory.  The actual result was 68% to 32%.  YouGov also predicted 2001's IDS-Clarke race accurately.  The good news for this site is that our 69% to 31% prediction was also highly accurate.

'Our' 69% to 31% prediction comes from the new ConservativeDemocracy.com website that you can access here.  By taking the survey on that site you can join the Conservative Members' Panel.  That monthly Panel and survey will be an essential part of this website's mission.  ConservativeHome.com successfully championed members' right to a vote in the leadership election and we aim to continue to be a site run by members for members.  The Panel will be a way of ensuring the new leadership is kept in touch with members' concerns on issues of policy, candidate selection and party reform.

More results of the latest Panel Survey will be revealed soon but as Mr Cameron makes final touches to his shadow cabinet we thought he might like to know what you think should be done with David Davis...

The Panel was asked: "What should happen to David Davis under a David Cameron leadership?"

767 members had answered by 2pm yesterday afternoon:

• 23% said that he should become Deputy Leader
• 31% wanted him to remain Home Secretary
• 8% thought that Mr Davis should be demoted to a lesser role
• 2% think he should be sacked
• 34% said that it was a decision for David Cameron to decide.