Politics: Cameron in chains

When Conservative leaders come to address the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, they are required to stand outside Committee Room 14 of the House of Commons until the rest of the agenda is completed.

When Conservative leaders come to address the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, they are required to stand outside Committee Room 14 of the House of Commons until the rest of the agenda is completed. Only then are they summoned in. David Cameron likens the experience to ‘waiting outside the headmaster’s study’. But it is worse than that — as he waits, half a dozen journalists watch his every move. If he perspires, it’s on Twitter.

Cameron has done his utmost to get out of this ordeal. When he was leader of the opposition, he used to call his own meetings of the parliamentary party, which he could attend from the start. As soon as he became PM, he tried effectively to abolish the 1922 Committee; but his efforts were defeated.