VIEWPOINT

ONE step forward...and at least one backward. Is it his parade ground training? Any advantage from the modest gains that Iain Duncan Smith managed at last week's local elections seems likely to be lost by the growing row over his choice of Barry Legg as chief executive of Conservative Central Office and as his own chief of staff. he first problem is that he had no right to name the chief executive - that is the prerogative of Party's ruling board. The second problem is that, although Mr Legg is a personal friend of Mr Smith, he has a distinctly dubious political and personal record. It is now known that when he was a senior councillor on Westminster City Council in 1989 he chaired a secret meeting at which it was decided to put homeless people into a run-down tower block known to be riddled with asbestos dust; the decision was part of the poll-rigging shenanigans going on in that Conservative council at the time. Later, when Mr Legg was company secretary at a food processing company he oversaw the transfer of £18 million from a pension fund to a general account - an arrangement which the High Court in 1996 described as “a breach of trust”. Iain Duncan Smith has proved to be very high-handed in his dealings with his colleagues and staff. He may be reined in next week when the Board, chaired by Theresa May, considers Mr Legg's position. It may also ask why the Party's head of campaigns, Stephen Gilbert, was dismissed by Mr Smith two months ago but is thought to deserve some of the credit for last Thursday's election results.