David Cameron is putting himself in the firing line on immigration

One of the important but unglamorous adjustments that the Conservatives have had to make in majority government is the structure of government itself. It’s the sort of thing that was particularly important under the Coalition, as Nick Clegg had managed, rather cannily, to gather a great deal of power for himself on powerful but unheard of Cabinet committees.

Now there is no Nick Clegg, and Oliver Letwin has taken the former Deputy Prime Minister’s place on the Cabinet Committees where he wielded unseen power by blocking Tory policies. The full list of Cabinet Committees and ‘implementation taskforce’ (more on that in a bit) memberships is below, but to take one Committee as an example, the Home Affairs Committee, which Clegg used to rather devastating effect to block or slow down many flagship Tory policies, now has Letwin as its chair. Tories who could once blame Clegg for stopping something they didn’t really want to do will struggle to blame Letwin.