Ex-Army chief General Sir Richard Dannatt to become Tory defence adviser
But David Cameron's success in wooing General Sir Richard Dannatt is marred by frontbencher's gaffe over appointment
David Cameron is set to announce the appointment of the popular former chief of the Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, as an adviser on defence.
But Mr Cameron's plan to unveil the appointment in his speech to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester tomorrow was dealt a blow when a Tory frontbencher dismissed it as a "political gimmick".
As exclusively reported in The Times today, General Dannatt will become a peer and advise the shadow defence team.
General Dannatt retired as Chief of the General Staff in August but is still embroiled in a row with Downing Street over troop numbers in Afghanistan. Senior MPs said that argument may have made him too controversial to be appointed as a minister.
Mr Cameron's success in wooing the general was overshadowed, however, by a gaffe from the Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling, who criticised the appointment in the mistaken belief that the general had been recruited by the Prime Minister.
Asked what he thought of the move, Mr Grayling told BBC News: "I admire the work of General Dannatt and other senior generals who've done so much in Afghanistan and done so much to lead.
"I hope that this isn't a political gimmick. We've seen too many appointments in this Government of external people where it's all been about Gordon Brown's PR.
"General Dannatt's an experienced figure and should rightly be working alongside government. I'm always suspicious of Government's motives when it does things like this."
Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, quickly seized on the gaffe, saying: "What we've seen today is that Chris Grayling is so keen to do Britain down, he'll attack anything - including his own party."
Mr Grayling later laughed off his gaffe, telling the BBC he had misheard the question. "I wish I had known before as I would have given him a much more enthusiastic welcome," he said.
Speculation has been mounting over General Dannatt's future role and he fuelled the rumours in a round of interviews this morning by saying he would "theoretically" be interested in joining government.
"I have always taken the view that I will get on with the job at hand and do it as well as I can," he said. "If someone in a future life wants me to do something else, well, let them ask the question and I will give the answer."
He went on: "No-one's asked me that question - that question has not been put in a public way."
Speaking at the party conference, Mr Cameron said that he had spoken to the general on various occasions about how to improve the armed forces and support the families of service personnel to patch up the "military covenant".
"He is a man of great talent and ability. He has been a great public servant and I think he has more to do," he said.
General Dannatt assumed the ceremonial post of Constable of the Tower of London today, having stepped down from the Army over the summer.
This week he confirmed that Mr Brown had previously refused requests for troop levels in Afghanistan to be boosted by 2,000, saying the Prime Minister had viewed the move as "too expensive".
General Dannatt said today that the Government had tried to damage his reputation after "losing the argument" over troop levels.
He also said that Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary, did not "call the shots" on deployments to Afghanistan.
Asked during a round of interviews why Mr Brown had rejected his recommendation, he said: "Because it was going to be too expensive. Simple as that. I think he had to put it in the context of the wider financial meltdown over the last 12 months, I think the effect on this country’s finances, and our own economy."
He said that the Prime Minister was swayed by "alternative" proposals which said the mission in Afghanistan could be accomplished with fewer troops, with tactics such as boosting the civilian effort.
Four different packages were put to Mr Brown for him to choose between, the former Army head said.
"But if you ask military people for their military advice, and we look at the task on the ground and the number of troops we need to do the job effectively, it came out to 9,800," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"Therefore it was very disappointing, to say the least, that the advice was not accepted and a major factor was the issue of the cost."
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