JAMES Gray will keep his job as rural affairs guru in the Conservative Party, despite apparently being axed from the role.

Confusion reigned yesterday after Tory leader Michael Howard unveiled the names in his slimmed down shadow cabinet and North Wiltshire MP Mr Gray's name was not included.

Conservative Central Office (CCO) said that only those MPs included in the list it released to the media had cabinet jobs.

CCO insisted anyone not on the list had been dropped by Mr Howard, as part of his radical reshaping of the opposition.

But at the same time, Mr Gray and other top Tory MPs had been insisting they still had their jobs.

And although CCO was adamant this was not the case, Mr Gray said he had spoken personally to the new Tory leader and been asked to stay in the job.

He said: "I'm in the same position I held before, as rural affairs spokesman. I remain in the shadow team and am happy to be in the same job."

By noon yesterday the affair was taking on the appearance of a pantomime, with Central Office insisting he was not in the team, and Mr Gray insisting he was.

The mix-up was eventually cleared yesterday afternoon up when Tory press officers decided the list of shadow members they had defended as definitive was in fact a provisional list.

Mr Gray together with other Tories had been forgotten rather than thrown out.

Another list was circulated, with Mr Gray included. Despite the gaffe, Mr Gray said the new look Conservative team - with just 12 cabinet members instead of the 26 under ousted leader Iain Duncan Smith would give Labour cause for concern.

He said: "I think the slimmed down cabinet is a beautiful move. It makes extremely good sense and should give us a tightly knit, coherent unit."

Mr Gray said they would now get on with the business of "exposing the true record of the Labour Government", which he accused of "taxing, spending and failing".

But Labour supporters claimed the Tories had nothing new to offer and were simply a collection of "ghosts from Thatcher's past". They also criticised the decision to have just one shadow cabinet member in charge of both health and education, arguing that showed the Tories were not committed to public services.

Editor