Will Anna Soubry be the first 2010er to get a big job?
Click picture to see Newsnight discussion
Is she the “winner” of the Ken Clarke business?
After being out of action away from TV and the internet for the past couple of days I’m only now catching up with the extraordinary Ken Clarke affair and clearly I missed a cracker of a political day on Wednesday.
Looking back over the coverage one person stands out – the new Tory MP for Broxtowe in Nottingham, Anna Soubry, who took the seat from Nick Palmer at the general election – and someone I only noticed for the first time a week ago when she made assured appearance on Question Time
Interestingly she was the person wheeled out by the Tories to face shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper on Wednesday’s Newsnight – a rookie back-bencher against the 7/2 favourite to be next Labour leader.
It should have been no contest but Soubry, an effective TV performer, was impressive getting over her points well and making Cooper, look petulant and shallow. See here.
It’s said that David Cameron won’t be re-shuffling his ministerial team until March next year. I wonder whenever that happens if Anna will become one of the first of the 2010 intake to get preferment. She deserves it.
Soubry, a former TV presenter and a barrister, was put on Cameron’s A-list of potential parliamentary candidates in 2006.
It struck me that the question of which of the newbie MPs will become ministers should be the subject of a betting market. I’m sure our friend Shadsy of Ladbrokes could devise something.