Its members will include Mr Clarke, Mr Hague, Mr Duncan Smith, who will speak occasionally from the Tory front bench, and the former prime minister John Major. I cannot globe-trot."William Hague, Kenneth Clarke and Michael Portillo also rejected job offers. The role of opposition is very different from the role of government. There is therefore no reason for the Opposition to mirror the structure of the Government."Mr Howard's first reshuffle did not all go according to plan. He failed to bring off a highly symbolic reconciliation with Ann Widdecombe, who once said he had "something of the night about him", when she turned down an international development post outside the Shadow Cabinet. She told The Independent: "I have had no direct conversations with Michael Howard. If in any preliminary soundings, the job of international aid had been mentioned, it should be quite obvious that I wouldn't have been able to do it because I have a 92-year-old mother to look after.

Michael Howard stamped his authority on the Conservative Party last night by slimming his Shadow Cabinet in an attempt to create a more effective Opposition to take the fight to Labour.

06/11 - 07/11 Capture Sade Tickets performing in New Orleans Arena, 1. Sade is performing in New Orleans, Tampa and Baltimore. Sade tickets

08/11 - 10/11 Access My Chemical Romance Tickets playing in Honda Center, Jiffy Lube Live. My Chemical Romance is playing in Anaheim, Bristow and Milwaukee. My Chemical Romance tickets

06/11 Shop for Lil Wayne Tickets staging in Mohegan Sun Arena, Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza. Lil Wayne is staging in Uncasville, Wilkes Barre and . Lil Wayne tickets

Although senior Tories insisted the new team was capable of winning the next general election, the shake-up was seen at Westminster as a plan to wage "guerrilla warfare" on Labour with the more realistic goal of sharply reducing Tony Blair's Commons majority.In a surprise change, Mr Howard cut the number of places in the Shadow Cabinet from 26 to 12, which saw 14 members of Iain Duncan Smith's team demoted to ensure a "more focused" approach. Aides said the aim was to build a stronger team to take on the Government through the media and in the country.The Tory leader said: "This shadow team is a radical departure from past practice. Mr Pemberton said that when the grassroots membership heard about the allegation, the membership would "blow them away".Mr Simpson said the union took the allegations "very seriously" and would begin an immediate inquiry. If necessary the complaints would be passed to the Certification Officer, the Government's union watchdog.Mr Lyons denied there was any attempt to promote the interests of one candidate above another.. He accused Mr Lyons of rewarding existing right-wing executive members who voted to increase his salary by £20,000 to £100,000 ahead of his retirement. The Amicus-AEEU leader is retiring in a year's time, although Mr Simpson has already assumed administrative and financial control of the new amalgamated organisation.Brian Pemberton, a left-wing candidate in the north-western area of the union, described the contents of the organisation's official journal as an "abuse of union funds" and an "obscenity".

Three other factions are involved in the fight to control the new union: left- and right-wingers from the engineering section, and left-wingers from MSF.In a reference to Mr Lyons' expected elevation to the peerage, one left-winger said Mr Lyons was "earning his ermine" by allegedly advancing the careers of New Labour loyalists at MSF. At stake is the political direction of Labour's largest union affiliate in the run-up to the next general election.Left-wingers point out that in the latest issue of the journal MSF Works, there are references to 11 New Labour candidates - and pictures of some of them - to the exclusion of any others.The magazine, for which Mr Lyons is responsible, costs £500,000 to produce and circulates among 350,000 members.Ballot papers go out today in the election for the first unified executive of the newly merged Amicus, which will begin its work in January. Attack the decision to go to war, though have the integrity to realise that without it, those Iraqis now tasting freedom would still be under the lash of Saddam, his sons and their henchmen. But accept that the task is not to argue about what has been, but to make what is happening now work, and work for the very Iraqis we all say we want to help."In his annual foreign policy speech to the Lord Mayor's Banquet in London, he said the situation in Iraq was the "battle of seminal importance for the early 21st century".He said: "It will define relations between the Muslim world and the West. It will influence profoundly the development of Arab states and the Middle East. It will have far-reaching implications for the future conduct of American and Western democracy." Mr Blair said Britain and "those supposedly evil Americans" had to take on the "large body" of opinion that claimed the Allied forces were an army of occupation, wanted to suppress Muslims and steal Iraqi oil, and had brought terrorist attacks on them. Their view is: you should never have been there and [should] get out now.