Could this guy spell trouble for Dave?
What will his election inquiry come up with?
The 1922 committee, following heavy prompting from Tim Montgomerie, is to launch an inquiry into the Tory performance at the general election. It will be led its chairman, Graham Brady, who, like Tim, is definitely is not part of Cameron’s fan club.
They believe that their party could have secured an overall majority if Nick Clegg had not been given an equal billing in the debates and the party had had a more robust message on immigration in the closing stages.
You can see why they were upset about the debates but there was no way under the rules that these could have taken place without Clegg. Just remember the problems the broadcasters had with the SNP and other smaller parties.
Once Cameron had made his original call for such debates and Brown had agreed to take part then Clegg was going to be there.
To my mind the Tory failure to win an overall majority was down to the relative lack of success in Labour-held marginals where the reds were defending majorities of 10% or more.
This was the result of the power of incumbency and the effectiveness of Labour’s final week campaigning on things like tax credits. At the next election there will be far fewer Labour incumbents.
The Brady-Montgomerie initiative will be an irritant and provide a rallying point for the disaffected right – but the world has moved on.