The Tories try to bring Hague’s vague role into focus

Over Christmas, William Hague’s standing in the party and David Cameron’s authority took a beating from reports that the shadow foreign secretary was prepared to resign rather than give up his outside interests. Today’s joint Cameron-Hague interview in The Sun can be seen as an attempt to move on from that. In an attempt to minimise the part-time issue, Hague tells George Pascoe-Watson, “I have been drastically cutting my outside interests. That will continue. There won’t be a lot left by the time we are approaching the election.” For his part, Cameron tries to show that Hague is not a semi-detached member of the team by stressing that Hague is his effective deputy and saying, “People haven’t seen enough of William and the huge role he has. You are going to see him in the front line on national issues. I want people to see the strength of my team.”

All Tory news is being seen through the prism of the coming reshuffle at the moment.