MICHAEL Howard lost the first senior figure from his shadow cabinet yesterday as David Curry, the shadow secretary of state for local and devolved government, resigned for personal reasons.
Mr Curry, fiercely pro-Europe and a euro enthusiast, represented the Kenneth Clarke wing of the Tory party, and had been a surprise appointment to the new Tory leader's shadow cabinet.
In a letter to Mr Howard, Mr Curry wrote: ''This is entirely for family reasons: there is
no political disagreement between us.''
Caroline Spelman, who is heavily involved in shaping Tory policy, and has held the environment and women's issues portfolios, was promoted to replace Mr Curry.
She said: ''This is a hugely important policy area where we have many opportunities to make our case, and to expose the failings of a discredited government.''
Richard Ottaway has taken over Ms Spelman's environment role and Eleanor Laing has been made shadow minister for women. Other changes are:
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown moves from the local and devolved government team to rejoin the whips' office; David Cameron has given up his
role as a deputy chairman of the party and joins the local and devolved government team with specific responsibility for local government finance; Mark Field leaves the whips' office to join the local government team as shadow
minister for London; David Ruffley has joined the whips' office; Andrew Rosindell has become vice-chairman of
the party; Desmond Swayne moves from the defence
team to become number two to David Lidington, shadow
secretary of state for Northern Ireland; Angela Watkinson leaves the whips' office to become a shadow minister
in the health and education team.
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