David Cameron has had another one of his friendly meetings with new Tory MPs today. These are regular slots where new backbenchers get the chance to raise matters that they’re interested in and the Prime Minister tells them how well they are doing. Unsurprisingly, Syria came up today.
It’s interesting that Cameron is being quite as active as he is with new MPs. It’s not just meetings in Number 10: it’s also letters to each new MP after their maiden speech, each with a little detail about what he particularly liked about what they said.
This sort of behaviour from the Prime Minister is striking because he was so poor at party relations in the first few years of the last Parliament. Now he seems to have learned the lessons of too many rebellions from disgruntled MPs, and is keen to befriend and flatter the (already very pro-Cameron) new intake so as not to end up with more revolts than are necessary.
Special attention is already being paid to MPs who have appeared less than content, like Heidi Allen. And George Osborne has also been wining and dining MPs in small groups.
All of this means that most of those in the new intake of Tory MPs feel terribly well loved. For them, being in a government with such a small majority has many benefits.
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