THE CHIEF WHIP CALLS
Anne McElvoy on a
Tory attempt at book-banning
JOHN Redwood should have been intro- ducing his Eurosceptic bromide, Our Cur- rency, Our Country, this week with all the fanfare demanded by a former Cabinet member's critique of European Monetary Union. Instead, he has been discovering — as if he didn't already know — that a ban on publicity commands far more attention than the most lavish launch party.
The Conservative high command is furi- ous that Mr Redwood has chosen the elec- tion run-up to publish his book challenging the Cabinet's wait-and-see strategy on monetary union and calling for a renegoti- ation of the 'Maastricht madness' at the very time it is trying to stem a flood of home-made manifestos from Conservative candidates expressing hostility to EMU.
Determined not to have the second week of campaigning dominated by apos- tasy, the Chief Whip, Alastair Goodlad, telephoned Mr Redwood at home last Sat- urday after the Daily Telegraph ran a news story about the impending launch. Mr Goodlad's usually good temper was frayed. 'What you're doing is terrible,' he said. 'You must pull that book.' Not even the Conservative party', Mr Redwood is said to have responded, 'can reinvent the Index librorum prohibitorurn.' The Latin did not have a soothing effect on Mr Goodlad. He accused Mr Redwood of timing the publi- cation of his book to disrupt the Tory cam- paign. 'The chief whip's tone was unnecessarily aggressive, vulgar and hys- terical,' says a Redwood aide. Asked about the conversation, Mr Redwood says, 'Some people seem to think that I am still bound by Cabinet responsibility despite the fact that I clearly am not.'
Mr Goodlad was not impressed by this logic: 'You are a Conservative MP and as such bound by responsibility to help your party get re-elected,' he said testily. According to pro-Redwood sources, the Chief Whip refused to confirm that he was telephoning at the Prime Minister's behest, despite Mr Redwood asking repeatedly whether this was the case. Oth- ers say that Mr Goodlad was further angered by Mr Redwood dispensing some recommendations about how the Tories could still win the election. 'That', says a senior Tory strategist, 'was a bit much coming from a man who has done more to undermine party unity than the rest of us put together.' The conversation ended with Mr Redwood agreeing to cancel the press conference but refusing to pull the book. was happy to agree to the request not to hold a press conference, primarily because there was already enough publici- ty for the book generated as things stood. I had no more need to draw attention to it.'
Whether it is standing in a leadership challenge, publishing books counter to the Cabinet line or attacking Britain's role in Nato enlargement, he , insists that his opposition to government policies is bene- ficial. A Central Office foe complains, 'The worst thing about John Redwood is that he behaves like an utter shit while reassuring you all the time that he is behaving as a gentleman.'
I meet the gentleman-shit in Wolver- hampton, where he has spent the day speaking to constituency members for Sir Nicholas Budgen and backing him in attacking Jack Straw on the subject of Labour's planned changes to the 1996 Immigration and Asylum Act. The Prime Minister has decreed that immigration should not be an election issue. Sir Nicholas disagrees and so, now, by associ- ation, does Mr Redwood. 'Labour raised this issue,' he says. 'It is perfectly natural for us to respond to it and defend govern- ment policy.'
This visit, like Mr Redwood's other tours of the constituencies before polling day, is organised without the help of Cen- 'I think we've detected laughing gas.' tral Office. To the chagrin of the Tory strategists, he can still pack in supporters. 'I'm campaigning strenuously for a Conser- vative victory.' There is the merest flicker behind the grey eyes.
How does he think the campaign is going? 'Campaigning does not begin until 8 April when the candidates are formally adopted,' he says primly. 'There are sound constitutional reasons for the distinction.' It turns out that there is another reason for his textbook precision on the matter. 'As the campaign hasn't begun yet, I can't be accused of publishing my book in the mid- dle of it.'
But it hardly helps. 'There are strong feelings about Europe in the party and I feel I reflect them accurately. In the long run, it will benefit us to face up to them.' But he does seem to have an uncanny abili- ty to remind the party of its divisions at unpropitious times. 'I don't agree.The lead- ership challenge cleared the air.' So Mr Major should be grateful to him for putting up, not shutting up? 'Well, I think that I did the Prime Minister some good then. There had been endless rumours before then that people other than me were going to challenge him, but they never did. My challenge got him out of all that trouble. That was a bonus for him.'
An odd thing has happened during John Redwood's self-imposed exile from Cabi- net. The Vulcan is turning into Rex Harri- son by degrees. 'I'm a reasonable man,' he says twice, and again, 'I'm a very calm man.' The ghost of Henry Higgins hovers: 'Why can't the Prime Minister be more like me?' In internal exile, he has been working hard at acquiring the personal skills he was so mercilessly teased for lacking then. In common with most other politicians nowa- days, he considers it necessary to flirt with women. But his heart isn't really in it and the effect is of a man reading from prompt cards. When we arrange to meet la Wolverhampton he adds stiffly, 'That will be very romantic.' It wasn't. The same applies to his attempts to develop a popularist touch. Like a virtuoso pianist banging out rock and roll, it doesn't seem quite right. But his miscalculations can be strangely touching — a rare sign of vulnerability. At a recent dinner for invest- ment bankers, he attacked Cherie Blair 's hairstyle, gym-going and one of her jumpers for 'looking like a TV test card'. This was rich, I say, coming from a man who announced his leadership challenge wearing a saggy cricket jumper. 'I was corn- ing back from playing cricket,' he says aggrieved. 'And I chose my jumper myself. Peter Mandelson summons a dozen pho- tographers when Mrs Blair goes shopping or changes her hair.' He warms to his theme with a sudden, disconcerting bout of laughter at his own joke. 'New Labour is all woolly pullies, shopping trolleys and hairstyles. Don't you think that's funny? I like a joke. It had them rolling in the aisles at the time.'
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