The Londoner learns that certain Conservative Cabinet ministers have formed an unofficial dinner club to solidify the Tory identity, protect their party’s interests and block some of the excesses of their Liberal Democrat partners in the Coalition.
The group has been organised by Tory party chairman Grant Shapps who, with Australian pollster Lynton Crosby, will help run the Tories’ election campaign in 2015. The Londoner hears Shapps has taken to holding informal get-togethers with Philip Hammond, Justine Greening, Chris Grayling, Eric Pickles and Jeremy Hunt. The majority of the ministers are from the “blue-collar” end of the Tory party and are on the Right.
The group has yet to settle on a name but one suggestion, taking account of its social modesty, is The Ragamuffins. Others observe that they are not part of the gilded world of special adviserdom and political nepotism from which the likes of Cameron and Osborne sprang.
Francis Maude has also been seen at one of the soirées. “He is the token toff,” says a source. The Ragamuffins are not so much a plot as a network of ministers to make sure the “yellow peril” (as the Lib-Dems are known) do not slide costly policies past No 10 without the PM noticing. One such example was a proposed new law on parental leave which emerged from Lib-Dem employment minister Jo Swinson. The Ragamuffins swung into action to kill the idea.
Details of where the Ragamuffins meet and the splendour of their table are elusive, but they are reportedly “house wine types rather than premier cru claret drinkers”.
