An article in today’s Times says that a return to the Tory front bench for Ken Clarke is looking increasingly likely. But a more striking revelation is contained in this paragraph:
“The Tory leader believes that the former Chancellor is the only senior Conservative, other than himself and George Osborne, who can command the media spotlight.”
To my eyes, there are a bunch of “senior conservatives” – including Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt, Eric Pickles and Nick Herbert – who are, at the very least, effective media performers. Whether or not they “command the media spotlight” is a slightly different question. But – as James suggested a couple of weeks ago – they’ll never get a chance to do so unless Tory high command kicks its over-reliance on Dave to get the party message across.
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