UK News 06-10-2003 Can You Name The Tory Leader? who: Iain Duncan Smith what: Is invisible leader according to NOP/Independent poll where: BLACKPOOL when: Today snippet: An NOP poll published in The Independent today says only 53 per cent of the public know that Mr Duncan Smith is leader of the Conservative party. "Two per cent still think that William Hague is the leader," reports John Curtice, "while the remainder simply do not know." "Privately, Tory MPs and even shadow cabinet members admit Mr Duncan Smith is on probation this week," says Cathy Newman, chief political correspondent at The Financial Times, as the Party`s annual conference begins in Blackpool. "The leader`s aides were frustrated that eye-catching policies for the next election manifesto were obscured by allegations - denied by Mr Duncan Smith - about past employment of his wife, Betsy, as a secretary." She is referring to a TV news item hurriedly pulled by Newsnight last week in which veteran journalist Michael Crick would have reported that Mr Duncan Smith had improperly appointed his wife to an £18,000-a-year job in his House of Commons office; the threat of legal action quashed the story but it subsequently surfaced in several Sunday papers. "Supporters claimed they had been the victims of a plot allegedly orchestrated by supporters of Michael Portillo," says The Guardian, "a charge denied by the former cabinet minister`s camp." [... more]

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