News from Labour Matters

Leading Conservative on Ken Clarke: “more tainted baggage than a mule on Colombia airways”

It might not be all cheerful backslapping in the Shadow Cabinet now that Ken Clarke has been brought back to give the Tory frontbench some weight. Michael Gove, the Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, may be particularly nonplussed if his comments written while a Times columnist in 2002, and uncovered by the FT political blog, are anything to go by:

“For the Conservatives to return to power, the party must be seen to have learnt from its mistakes, rejected the arrogance, cynicism and pocketlining of the Major era, developed a tone of voice appropriate to an anti-politician age and come up with a reforming agenda for the public services which respects professional as well as personal freedom.

Ken Clarke is sadly ill-equipped to do that job. As John Major’s tax-raising Chancellor, British American Tobacco’s handsomely remunerated director, the euro’s voter-rubbishing cheerleader and the tireless hammer of nurses and teachers, Ken carries more tainted baggage than a mule on Colombia airways.”

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