Conservative leader David Cameron hailed the return of former chancellor Kenneth Clarke to his front bench team today as senior figures dismissed suggestions the move would be divisive.
The experienced Mr Clarke, who was finance minister from 1993 to 1997, is to become shadow business secretary in a reshuffle aimed at strengthening the Conservatives' economic team.
He will replace Alan Duncan who will be offered another senior post.
Mr Cameron said Mr Clarke was "a very big figure" who would give his team a boost.
"He was the last chancellor of the Exchequer to take the country out of a recession. He has a huge amount of experience," Mr Cameron told Sky News. "He will make up part of what I'm sure will be the best economic team in Britain. It's great that he's joining the shadow cabinet."
Mr Clarke has been brought back to counter prime minister Gordon Brown's heavyweight business secretary, Peter Mandelson, brought back by Mr Brown into the cabinet last October.
Mr Clarke (68) held a variety of senior cabinet posts in the last Conservative governments under Margaret Thatcher and John Major. Since the Conservatives lost power in 1997, he has failed in three attempts to win the party leadership.
However his pro-European views put him at odds with many in the Conservative Party.
Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said Clarke's return would not cause problems for the party and denied it was a negative reflection on his own performance.
"I actually was the person who first approached him and talked to him about getting more fully involved in the Shadow Cabinet," he told BBC radio.
Mr Brown's response to the financial crisis, including spending tens of billions of pounds on rescuing banks and trying to lift the economy out of recession, earned him a bounce in the opinion polls late last year.
Reuters