Dominic Grieve, the new shadow home secretary, tells James Forsyth that he won’t ‘resort to soundbites’. But is this a sensible approach for a modern-day politician?
Dominic Grieve’s office answerphone is struggling to keep up with events – the caller has reached ‘the office of the shadow attorney general and the Conservative spokesman on community cohesion,’ it says. No mention of his new role as shadow home secretary.
Some Conservatives wish the answerphone was right. Even normally loyal Cameroons struggle to envisage going into the next election with Grieve as shadow home secretary. They’d rather he was a stopgap measure. Certainly, few would have named Grieve as part of the Tory’s strongest bowling attack a fortnight ago. But this is irrelevant now. Cameron cannot afford to change shadow home secretary again: to lose one looks like misfortune, to lose two looks like carelessness.
The logic behind Grieve’s appointment was simple.
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