Hannan: yes, I’m shaping the Tory manifesto

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

Sunder Katwala over at NextLeft is amused – and no doubt concerned – to see this blog post from last month, which sets out Dan Hannan’s “confident claim that he is having an enormous influence on the Tory manifesto, without the hassle of leading the party”. The post is from Hannan’s Telegraph blog, from just a month ago.

Hannan said:

“What’s better than leading a political party? Getting to determine its manifesto without any of the hassle of actually, you know, leading it. I’ve observed before that, line by line, chapter by chapter, The Plan: Twelve months to renew Britain is becoming official Tory policy. My friend and co-author Douglas Carswell is miffed at the lack of acknowledgement, and you can see his point: David Cameron’s policy wallah, Steve Hilton, has cut and pasted bits of our text with neither alteration nor attribution.“

Does that include Hannan’s thoughts on the NHS?