Michael Brown: Clarke is an appealing candidate, but is he tainted by his role in 18 years of Tory rule?

A party under Ken's command will hand Gordon Brown the easiest weapon in the Labour armoury

Published: 01 September 2005

So at last the great Ken Clarke fedora has been tossed into the Tory ring. After months of hints and teasing, Ken has taking the plunge into the blue but muddy waters of the Tory leadership campaign - and muddied the waters his candidacy certainly has. It would be a foolish pundit who write off his chances and, whatever the allegiance of individual Tory MPs and sympathetic journalists to other names in the frame, Mr Clarke deserves to be taken seriously. From a journalist's point of view, he is the one candidate who relieves the tedium of covering this now biennial Tory bloodletting ritual.

In the immediate aftermath of the general election defeat, Michael Howard announced that, already aged 64, he would be too old to lead the Tories into another election in 2009 or 2010 - when he would be approaching 70. The implication was that Ken should also be ruled out. But so far as age is concerned, I see no reason why this should automatically debar Ken. I have often remarked how, in spite of his healthy appetite, his love of the occasional pint and his prodigious consumption of cigars, he seems to have more puff about him than Tony Blair.

Article Length: 1050 words (approx.)