Though his Conservative colleagues have largely been very supportive of Grant Shapps during the latest row about his alter ego Michael Green, there is a contingent in the party who aren’t massive fans of the Tory chairman and who have pushed at previous reshuffles to have him removed. As I predicted yesterday, those opponents of Shapps certainly aren’t planning any trouble this side of an election. But that doesn’t mean they’ll leave him alone permanently. One critic whispers:
‘We’re keeping quiet as there is an election imminent. But the knives will be out after that. He lied on radio – and a Cabinet Minister who does that should be toast. And he will be.’
Shapps yesterday said he had ‘over firmly’ denied that he was doing a second job while working as an MP, and David Cameron has stuck by him. His friends describe the incident as ‘cock-up rather than conspiracy’. Most Tory MPs tend to couple him with Lynton Crosby as a force for good in the party’s election campaign, and if the Tories do well in the election, perhaps his critics will think again about causing trouble for the chair.
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