Esquire magazine is this month tipping five coalition MPs as future cabinet ministers as part of a piece naming 20 future high-fliers in Westminster.
Interestingly the five include David Laws, forced to step down from the job of chief secretary to the Treasury only a few weeks into the government. The other four are Grant Shapps, Nick Herbert, Greg Hands and Greg Barker.
This may be only half-right. My intel on Laws is that the coalition is very keen to bring him back into frontline politics after he did a fairly brief “penance” on the backbenches. (For his alleged breaches of expenses rules). The hope is that he can be promoted around next May when insiders expect the first major reshuffle.
Yet I’m told it won’t necessarily be as a cabinet minister. Instead the job is more likely to be at the level of minister of state. From there, of course, re-promotion to the top table is only a matter of time given Laws’ impressive credentials.
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey