The Tories need an attack dog

Iain Martin has a thought-provoking post up about how the Tories lack an attack-dog. Certainly, the Tories lack a shadow Minister for the Today Programme, someone who can be relied to go on when it is a bad morning for the party and deal robustly with a tough interview. This is a position the Tories will need to fill before the campaign gets under way.

As Iain says, Chris Grayling was at one point used as the party’s attack dog. But this has come to overly define his political persona and he hasn’t really recovered from his Wire speech and a lacklustre conference, although his recent more thoughtful speeches on crime have been worth reading.

I suspect that Sayeeda Warsi might soon be auditioned for this role. Andy Coulson is very impressed by her media skills. To a leadership that is sensitive about the perception that it is too white, too male and too posh, the idea of having a Muslim Yorkshire woman act as one of the party’s main spokesmen is particularly appealing.