Fury as Cameron apes Blair with 'sofa squad' of advisers

London: British Prime Minister David Cameron was accused of snubbing his own Cabinet by reviving Tony Blair's heavily criticised policy of running No 10 by "sofa diplomacy" with a new £1 million (Dh5.9 million) team of unelected advisers.

The high-powered Downing Street recruits will be given the right to issue orders to senior Ministers in an attempt to put an end to a catalogue of government blunders and U-turns such as last week's humiliating climbdown over the plan to sell off forests.

The move marks a dramatic reversal of the Prime Minister's scathing criticism of Blair and Brown for relying on a small group of cronies with Cabinet Ministers sidelined.

And it comes with a high price tag: the new No 10 "A" team will cost around £1 million with average pay packets of close to £100,000 — most funded by taxpayers.

The initiative has already been criticised by some senior figures inside the Coalition. One said: "It looks as though we are going to have two Cabinets: an inner one made up of the PM's advisers sitting on his Downing Street sofa making the big decisions — and an outer one made up of Cabinet Ministers in their Whitehall departments half a mile away who find out what is going on later."

The term "sofa diplomacy" was coined by former Cabinet Secretary Robin Butler who said it was one of the reasons Blair's handling of the Iraq War was a disaster.

Butler said Blair took too many decisions in his study with a group of hand-picked aides with experienced Cabinet Ministers, who may have challenged him, locked out.

Cameron's allies deny his changes spell a return to "sofa diplomacy". But they do not deny that he believes he must "get a grip" of Whitehall departments to make sure the Government gets its message across more effectively.

Backlash

Some of the appointments threaten to cause a backlash. New No. 10 director of political strategy Andrew Cooper has earned widespread respect across all parties as one of Britain's most important political pollsters.

But Cooper, thought to be on a £125,000 salary, is seen by some Tories as divisive. A follower of Michael Portillo, he coined the term the "Nasty Party" to try to "decontaminate" the Tory brand and has been accused of plotting against former party leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith, who are both members of the current Cabinet.

Cooper was forced to quit his job at Tory HQ when Hague was leader after claims that Portillo's allies were plotting against Hague. And he had close links to Tory activists involved in the successful plot to bring down Duncan Smith.