INTRIGUING rumours at Westminster – despite the House not returning until next week.
I’m reliably informed that the recent vocal campaign to have Ken Clarke reinstated to the Shadow Cabinet is but a feint, a ruse to disguise the true intent of KC’s apparent supporters: to bring back David Davis.
The former Shadow Home Secretary is considered one of the so-called “Tory Big Beasts” whose presence is sorely missed on Cameron’s front bench. With end-of-year polls showing a severe narrowing of the Tory lead, there is much complaining in the tearoom (or will be when it reopens for business next Monday) that, given the economic circumstances, Do-Nothing should be much further ahead than he is. Hence the increasingly voluble demands for DD’s return.
I suspect DD’s supporters, though, are being unrealistically optimistic: I can’t see Do-Nothing caving into this pressure in the same way he caved in over the Shadow Cabinet’s day jobs. He can’t afford another high profile defeat at the hands of his own party.
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Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 4:49 pm
This is a strange rumour indeed. I was always under the impression that David Cameron would have David Davies back over his dead body?
I thought that’s why the Ken Clarke rumour was so credible? To appease the growing number of Tories who want a bigger hitter in the Shadow Cabinet without having to bring back David Davis?
Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 7:26 pm
You can’t buy crotchless panties in the Boden catalogue. There’s a reason for that.
David Davis will return to the Shadow Front Bench “no time soon” (in his own words). Danger and excitement does not figure in the navy cardi and comfy cords world of David Cameron, so, your informant is…misinformed.