The Shadow Cabinet Rich List – Part 1

The Shadow Cabinet Rich List is published today by the News of the World (where yours truly is a columnist). It shows there are 19 millionaires around that table. Conservatives, of course, tend to come from a business background, whereas Labour come from public services. Wealth from previous jobs tends to be stored in the form of property – which has, of course, boomed in the last decade thus augmenting their net worth.

And does all this moolah matter? I’d say so. Labour, for example, argue that the Tories can afford to be enthusiasts for cleaning up Commons expenses when they’re all minted. And from the other side, a Tory made the point to me that not many of his colleagues understood the “Thursday night dinner problem” – ie, what to have for dinner the day before payday, and the weekly budget hasn’t quite stretched as intended.

The British public, of course, will judge the Conservatives on the quality of their proposals.