Howard chooses new shadow cabinet
Newly crowned Tory leader Michael Howard has announced his shadow Cabinet.
Oliver Letwin moves into Mr Howard’s former post of shadow chancellor and David Davis slides into Mr Letwin’s vacated position as shadow home secretary.
Michael Ancram maintains his place as shadow foreign secretary.
The shadow cabinet has been almost halved in size to just 12 MPs in a radical shake-up of the party.
A number of ‘super-jobs’ have been created. Former party chairman Theresa May takes over the portfolios for transport and the environment, while liberal Conservative Tim Yeo takes over responsibility for health and education.
It was announced earlier that Mr Howard’s campaign leader Dr Liam Fox and advertising guru Lord Saatchi would be sharing the job of chairman.
Dr Fox will be in charge of taking the Tory message to the country and leading the party’s general election strategy, while Lord Saatchi will deal with the internal issues affecting Conservative Central Office.
Tory frontbench members in the new ‘double jobs’ will be shadowing two of the government’s ministers.
David Willetts, work and pensions spokesman, is taking over responsibility for the manifesto.
Mr Howard has also created a Conservative Advisory Council which will meet regularly to discuss party issues.
Mr Howard explained: “As I have repeatedly made clear, I want to make full use of the rich array of talent in the Conservative Party. This team extends well beyond the shadow cabinet.
“I am delighted that John Major, William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and Ken Clarke have agreed to form a group which will be part of this Conservative team.
“We will meet on a regular basis to assess the progress which the party is making.”
In other appointments, Lord Strathclyde becomes leader of the opposition in the House of Lords, David Curry takes over as shadow secretary of state for local and devolved government affairs and David Maclean, who stood down under Iain Duncan Smith, has been reappointed as the party’s chief whip.
Commenting on his new shadow cabinet, Mr Howard said: “The role of opposition is very different from the role of Government. There is therefore no reason for the Opposition to mirror the structure of the Government. Today’s changes represent an explicit recognition that the Conservative Party needs greater flexibility in our Parliamentary structures if we are to be able to challenge the Government effectively at Westminster.
“More importantly, these changes will enable us to use the pool of talent we have more efficiently, in order to take our case out to the country and show how Conservative policies can provide a creative, workable and, above all, effective alternative to a failing Labour Government.”
