Shadow Tory Cabinet Holds First Meeting
A decimated Tory shadow Cabinet has met for the first time since the party was defeated at the polls on Thursday.
Many found they had to ask Westminster officials for directions on how to get through the labyrinth of corridors to the suite of Opposition rooms.
With seven of their number lost, they traipsed into the Shadow Cabinet Room to discuss the future with John Major.
The Party chairman Brian Mawhinney and former Chief Whip Alastair Goodlad were among the first to arrive.
Next were the leadership challenger Peter Lilley, the former Social Security Secretary, and his new running mate, the former Education Secretary Gillian Shephard.
Other contenders for the leadership, the former Health Secretary Stephen Dorrell, the former Home Secretary Michael Howard and the former Welsh Secretary William Hague, followed.
Even the former Chancellor Kenneth Clarke, who has been an opposition spokesman before, looked a little lost and was the last in.
All were expected to keep the portfolios they had in office, but with so many key players out of action because they lost their seats, MPs from more junior ranks will have to be promoted to the frontbench. It's expected that John Major will do that on an ad hoc basis, however - so as not to be seen to be trying to tie the hands of whoever succeeds him.
More than one Tory MP today described the mood as they returned to the Commons today for the re-election of the Speaker as "like being a survivor at the battle of the Somme".
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