Tensions are rising in the Conservative Party about what it would actually do in government. David Cameron keeps a tight grip on policy announcements but differences are emerging over whether the party should overturn some Labour decisions if it wins the next election.
There was a good example when Jacqui Lait, a junior frontbench spokeswoman, promised to scrap the new Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) to approve major projects like nuclear power stations and airports, which was approved by MPs last night. "In two years we will be in government, and we will review the IPC out of existence," she said. "I put on record the fact that anyone who takes up a contract to be a commissioner will have a very short contract."
Alan Duncan, the shadow industry secretary, seemed unamused by Lait's declaration. "He had a face like thunder afterwards," one Tory MP told me.
Duncan is trying to forge closer links between the Tories and business, which supports the Government's moves to speed up decisions on major planning applications.
Business is also critical of Cameron's apparent hostility to a third runway at Heathrow Airport. Labour ministers are convinced that, in Gordon Brown's words, the Tories are "on the wrong side of the argument" on the planning shake-up and a host of other issues (including 42-days detention). The problem for Cameron is that some Tories agree. Tricky.
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