'No policies' Cameron to publish Tory prospectus

Prospectus: Tory leader David Cameron will publish a book of new proposals
13 April 2012

David Cameron is to set up an "Implementation Office" to prepare his party for government, the Standard has learned.

He will also aim to quash criticisms of his lack of policies by bringing out a 40,000-word book of new proposals from which his election manifesto will eventually be drawn.

The idea of the book is based on The Right Approach, the 1976 prospectus for Margaret Thatcher's radical government, which first laid out trailblazing plans such as council house sales.

Both plans are part of a highly detailed timetable of preparations for a general election expected in 2009 or 2010 - but which senior Tories fear could be called as early as 2008.

Mr Cameron will start setting up the Implementation Office in the new year, recruiting a permanent staff of business professionals and former civil servants with the target of becoming fully operational in January 2008.

Its aim is to make the most detailed preparations yet for an Opposition party hoping to win power, such as drafting the first Queen's Speech.

Every shadow cabinet minister will have to deal with the office, building up a folder containing instructions for new legislation and a "to do" list for civil servants.

The office will also organise training for shadow ministers about what to expect in government and how to manage their departments.

A senior party source said: "For the first time since 1997 we feel we are heading for an election win and that is why these preparations are so important.

"We do not want to find ourselves in the same position as Labour ministers did who arrived in their ministerial offices and hadn't a clue what to do. They wasted their first two years because it took so long to get up and running."

In fact, Labour made what were, at the time, unprecedented preparations, including training weekends for would-be ministers.

But Tony Blair has admitted that it took his Cabinet months to learn how to use the levers of power.

Shadow chancellor George Osborne contacted previous Tory chancellors, including Lord Howe, last summer to ask them for advice on how to manage the Treasury. The activity of six groups set up to suggest policies is dominating the work of the Tory leadership, although most takes place behind closed doors.

Several hundred advisers, ranging from businessmen to public servants, are feeding reports into the process overseen by Oliver Letwin.

The six groups will report at the end of June, with their ideas being subjected to "line by line negotiation" with shadow cabinet ministers. By December next year, the best ideas will be published in the new book.

Labour has cancelled its annual spring conference next year in a bid to save money at a time of financial crisis. The party is to shelve the rally in Glasgow in favour of a series of smaller seminars and consultations across Britain. Officials deny it is a cost-cutting measure.

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