No Cabinet job for Grant Shapps

The party chairman in a general election winning campaign can normally expect a plum job as a reward, especially when that victory was against the odds. Tonight, though, Grant Shapps finds himself not in the Cabinet but a Minister of State at the Department of International Development.

Shapps’ treatment is, at first, puzzling. After all, the Team 2015 network that he created appears to have done a decent job in neutralising the supposed advantage that Labour’s ground operation was meant to give it But those around the Tory leader, say that David Cameron simply became fed up with the odd allegations that kept popping up about Shapps.

So, the fairness—or otherwise—of his treatment depends on whether these stories are true or not. Now, it is worth remembering that Shapps hotly disputes these stories which does make the treatment meted out to him a bit harsh.

With Shapps going to DFID, Andrew Feldman, who has been co-chairman for a while now, becomes party chairman.