Howard accords all contenders chance of succession

George Osborne was propelled into the heart of the Tory leadership battle last night when Michael Howard appointed him shadow Chancellor.

George Osborne was propelled into the heart of the Tory leadership battle last night when Michael Howard appointed him shadow Chancellor.

The 33-year-old MP for Tatton, who has been in the Commons for four years, will get the chance to earn his spurs in direct combat with Gordon Brown.

Mr Howard gave important jobs to all the potential candidates to take over from him. But the most eye-catching promotion went to Mr Osborne, who had been shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, fuelling speculation that he was being anointed by Mr Howard as his successor.

He takes over from Oliver Letwin, who has made clear he has no ambitions to lead the party and becomes shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

David Cameron, another rising star, who was the party's head of policy co-ordination, becomes shadow Education Secretary.

Liam Fox was promoted from the Tory chairmanship to the senior post of shadow Foreign Secretary. He succeeds Michael Ancram, who remains deputy leader and takes over as shadow Defence Secretary.

David Davis, regarded as the leadership front-runner, remains shadow Home Secretary, while the former cabinet minister Malcolm Rifkind has been given the Work and Pensions brief. Sir Malcolm, a cabinet minister under John Major, returned to the Commons as MP for Kensington and Chelsea last week and is being championed by some as a "stop Davis" candidate.

Another former minister, Francis Maude, who has been outspoken in his demands for the party to modernise, becomes Conservative chairman.

Alan Duncan, who is considering a leadership bid, is promoted to the top table for the first time as shadow Transport Secretary. Another potential candidate, Andrew Lansley, remains shadow Health Secretary.

One senior Tory said Mr Howard had "anointed" Mr Osborne as his successor and said Mr Cameron had made clear he did not want the shadow Chancellorship,

A spokesman for the Tory leader said: "All the various strands of opinion within the party are represented in the Shadow Cabinet."

Mr Osborne said yesterday: "I have had certainly no thoughts of running for the leadership and I've got a very big job now as shadow Chancellor."

He said: "We have got to face the fact we only got 33 per cent of the vote and we need to get more than that next time. We need to broaden the appeal and obviously the economic policy of the party is central to that."

Sir Malcolm said: "Pensions is one the greatest challenges the country is facing over the next few years and pensions, sadly, is perhaps the single greatest failure of the Government."

He added: "I'm going to treat it as a proper job that will last for a considerable length of time and the future will look after itself."

Dr Fox told the BBC: "I would not call it a beauty parade and I would say it was a collection of the best talents in the party. I look and see a lot of fresh faces there and I think the Labour Party are going to face a reinvigorated and re-energised Opposition."

Mr Howard appointed his final Shadow Cabinet against a backdrop of growing disquiet over his decision to step down once the leadership question is settled. Lord Kalms, one of the party's most prominent donors, said yesterday that "tomorrow would not be quick enough" for Mr Howard to step down.

"There is nothing worse than a lame duck leader," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"Michael Howard has done a terrific job for the party and tried very hard, but once you are gone, you are gone and the quicker you go the better. Every day he stays as leader is now a wasted day."

At 33, he faces Brown across Commons. Can George Osborne be Tories' saviour?

George Osborne is heir to a wallpaper and upholstery fortune, but an increasing number of Tory admirers also believe he could inherit the party's throne.

When he arrived in the Commons four years ago, he was already a senior figure in Conservative Central Office, having worked for William Hague as his political secretary and speech writer.

Before the Tories were swept from power in 1997, he was special adviser to the agriculture minister Douglas Hogg at the height of the BSE crisis.

His reward was to be offered the Cheshire seat of Tatton in 2001, the constituency formerly held by Neil Hamilton which was won in 1997 by Martin Bell, the BBC reporter turned anti-sleaze campaigner. After a brief spell as an Opposition whip, Mr Osborne joined the shadow economics affairs team in November 2003. Ten months later he was appointed shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

Mr Osborne advocates modernisation of the party, insisting: "It has been important for the Conservative Party to demonstrate that we understand Britain as it is today."

But he is also seen as being on its ''neo-con'' wing, supporting the removal of hostile military regimes.

Educated at St Paul's School, London, and Oxford, he worked as a freelance journalist before immersing himself in politics.

Mr Osborne, who is married with two children, takes pride in sharing his name with a character from Thackeray's Vanity Fair, who met his end at Waterloo.

The present Osborne once commented: "[The character] does die in a good cause, defying a madman trying to build a single European state."

Mr Osborne is a leading member of the so-called Notting Hill Set of bright young Tories.

He is famous for his impressions of Tony Blair. He has worked with four Tory leaders, and has escaped with his reputation intact.

Cameron takes education, but elite background may harm leadership bid

David Cameron, the 38-year-old new shadow Education Secretary, has admitted: "I have this terrible CV."

His Eton and Oxford education would once have been de rigeur for an aspiring Tory leader. But as the party attempts to demonstrate its egalitarian credentials, his privileged background may now prove his biggest disadvantage.

Within weeks of his election as MP for Witney, Oxfordshire, in 2001, Mr Cameron was being marked out for great things. He was rapidly promoted to the Tory front bench.

After spells as a deputy party chairman and shadow minister for Local Government, Michael Howard put him in charge of policy co-ordination for the election.

Graduating from Oxford with first-class honours, he took up a job at the Conservative Research Department. After the party's 1992 election victory he had spells as special adviser to Norman Lamont, the Chancellor, and Michael Howard when he was Home Secretary.

After a seven-year spell as director of corporate affairs for Carlton Communications, he won Witney, for many years held by the Tory cabinet minister Douglas Hurd.

Mr Cameron is married with two children. His three-year-old son Ivan is severely disabled, suffering cerebral palsy and epilepsy. He has repeatedly urged the party not to lose its sense of compassion, telling last year's Tory conference: " If you don't understand the complexities and changing nature of modern society you are irrelevant in politics, and if you don't address the modern concerns of a modern country you are dead."

Mr Cameron is regarded within the party as an incisive and original thinker and has urged his party to reach out to groups previously shunned by the Tories.

The new Shadow Cabinet

Deputy leader and shadow Defence Secretary, Michael Ancram

* Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne

* Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Skills, David Cameron

* Shadow Home Secretary, David Davis

* Shadow Foreign Secretary, Liam Fox

* Shadow Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley

* Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, Alan Duncan

* Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Malcolm Rifkind

* Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Oliver Letwin

* Shadow Leader of the House of Commons, Chris Grayling

* Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Philip Hammond

* Shadow Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, Oliver Heald

* Shadow Secretary of State for Productivity, Energy and Industry, David Willetts

* Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, David Lidington

* Chief Whip, David Maclean

* Chairman of the Conservative Party, Francis Maude

* Shadow Secretary of State for the Family and for Culture, Media and Sport, Theresa May

* Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell

* Shadow Secretary of State for Deregulation, John Redwood

* Shadow Secretary of State for Local and Devolved Government Affairs, Caroline Spelman

* Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords, Lord Strathclyde