The Work and Pensions Secretary has a genuine belief in social mobility and is magnificently unabashed under fire.
Now that he has made the leap from Chief Whip to Defence Secretary, we republish our Profile from shortly after he transitioned from Team Cameron to Team May.
May encourages Corbyn to take up primeministerial posturing.
The modern family is changing, and the law should change with it. In any event, the traditional view of marriage has already been overhauled by the Conservatives.
It is unlikely that the mass of such voters in those crucial northern and midlands marginals would welcome a permissive approach.
Many of Brussels’ demands, including for continued oversight by the European Court, are quite simply preposterous.
The Prime Minister needs to be more self confident with the media.
Coalitions are the new normal…”banging on about Europe” is inherently unpopular…no-one will ever listen to the polls again.
But she confirms that Britain is leaving the ECJ’s jurisdiction, and says that there is a very clear choice on Thursday – between “me and Jeremy Corbyn”.
Those looking to find what she really stands for may one day get an answer. But the point for the here and now is: she seeks to dominate the mainstream.
CCHQ has been taken to task elsewhere for imposing lists of candidates on seats with no connection to it. It certainly hasn’t done so in this case.
But unless his fully-developed vision of the future can capture heart-and-minds, I’d expect control of the party to stay with the mainstream.