The Top 100 Most Influential People on the Right: 50-1

Here is the second and final part of the Telegraph Top 100 People on the Right List. You can see the 100-51 list HERE. To read the biographies of those in the Top 50 click HERE. The article explaining the choice of the panel, printed in today's Telegraph follows...

In compiling the annual list of the 100 most influential people on the Left or Right of British politics, we came very close to putting someone whose identity we do not know at number 2 in both lists. We will call him or her “Deep Moat” – the Whitehall whistle-blower who shook British politics to its foundations by leaking the entire database of MPs’ expenses claims, published by the Telegraph.

Even before that expenses scandal, David Cameron was doing well as leader and as a prospective prime minister. But then a pretty good year turned into what is likely to be the year before he becomes prime minister. Of course, anything can happen in politics and there is still some time before polling day, but the election is now the Conservatives’ to lose. Cameron remains at number one because of what he made of the opportunity offered him.

It did not have to be that way: some of the worst stories from the expenses scandal involved Conservative MPs. Andrew MacKay, number 29 in last year’s list, was the most high-profile victim, but the mud did not stick to the Tories in quite the same way as it has done to the Labour government. That was largely because Cameron was rock-solid in his response – quick off the mark, tough in dealing with offenders in his own party and consistent in articulating what people felt about the scandal. Admittedly, a scandal like this is easier to deal with in opposition, but it could easily have been fluffed.

The Left’s only other route back, the economy, has also provided fertile ground for Cameron. His tougher stance at Prime Minister’s Questions and stubborn battles over the need for cuts mean he has had an outstanding year as Prime Minister designate.

The story in the rest of the shadow cabinet, the Conservative Party and the broader Right of British politics is more mixed. There has been relative stability in the top 25, but significant numbers of MPs have slipped down, often because of the need for a period of silence on their part following the expenses scandal.

There are also seven new entries in the top 25. Kenneth Clarke pushed his way in because of his dogged fight against Lord Mandelson. Eric Pickles and Theresa May climb the rankings for similar reasons – they add a weight of experience to the attack. It is likely that a Cameron cabinet will include a good proportion of former ministers and many more experienced hands are coming back in to front-line politics now that power is clearly within the Conservative Party’s grasp.

While Cameron has been good at wielding the axe when needed, as Alan Duncan recently discovered, many in the top 10 stay put, representing a unified team. The only interloper is MEP, columnist and Telegraph blogger Daniel Hannan, who has bounced up from 86 to 10. In Hannan, the Right of the Conservative Party found a voice. There is always a tipping point in opposition politics when the prospect of victory becomes apparent: Hannan seems to have decided that this moment has come, and that the Cameroonies needed reminding that they are leading the Conservative Party and not New Labour Mark 2. His verbal assault on Gordon Brown in the European Parliament was a YouTube sensation, but he has also articulated a radical view of localism and stirred up heated debate over the role of the NHS. Assuming the Tories form a government, he is unlikely to rank quite so high next year, but on his performance this year he has earned his high place.

Hannan was not the only one to find success online. Another maverick entry, for his contribution to the unsettling of No 10 alone, is the blogger Guido Fawkes, up 50 places. Again, he is unlikely to be here next year, unless the scoops keep coming, but his role in the Damian McBride email scandal placed him front and centre in one of the biggest political stories of the year.

While a significant number of middle-ranking MPs have slipped back over the year, a couple have bucked this trend. Damian Green has continued his steady climb towards the top 30. He had a good expenses crisis, and with the lifting of the investigation into leaks on immigration (which saw him arrested in the House of Commons), his trajectory towards a big job in the government continues. However, the real star this year, rising 82 places to 14, is Philip Hammond, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury and a key player in the battle over public expenditure.

While shadow chancellor George Osborne concentrates more on general political strategy, it has been Hammond who has taken the fight to the Government on the deficit. The political strategy work that Osborne has been doing is set to continue after the election, with stories of a joint administration, or West Wing-style office combining the staffs of the Chancellor and PM. Although this might not survive the actual transition, the core of Osborne’s team will be central to implementing the project and so his backroom team, Matthew Hancock, Rupert Harrison and Rohan Silva, make a joint entry at number 39.

Financing the general election campaign will not be cheap, and the Government holds the advantage in the pre-election period. The £2.5 million recently given to the Conservative Party by City supporters should even the playing field considerably. That included £1 million from the property tycoon David Rowland, a high new entry, who returned to live in the UK to make the donation and has promised more in the future.

By the time we compile the next list, of course, there will have been a general election. Of the candidates who might be returned for the Conservatives, one of the most impressive, Priti Patel, makes an entrance at 75. She is contesting a new Essex seat with a notional Conservative majority of around 7,000 and is expected to be a leading member of the new intake. In fact, all of the future cabinet and most of the future ministers in a Conservative government are contained in the top 100. Many of the future special advisers and the think-tankers, donors and campaigners who will shape the administration are here.

But there are two names that might surprise you, and give a clue as to the way in which the old linear political spectrum – statism on the Left, free-market on the Right – has been disrupted. Lord Mandelson (18) and Lord Adonis (80) are both ministers in this Labour government, But, like it or loathe it, they are also architects and supporters of policy positions that will be central to Cameron’s government. Mandelson, as Business Secretary, has pursued business-friendly policies, and he might also succeed in shifting Labour back towards the fiscal centre, giving the Conservatives an easier task in power. Adonis, now the Transport Secretary beating the drum for high-speed rail, created the academy schools, a Blairite legacy on which Michael Gove’s bold education policy for parental control of schooling would build.

In both cases, many of the policies they advocate would sit as much at home in a Right-of-centre government as they do in a Left-of-centre one, thus qualifying them for both lists. The godfather of New Labour, Lord Mandelson, is therefore the most influential player on the Left and in the top 20 on the Right. It’s hard to think of a better epitaph for the age of Blair.

Iain Dale and Brian Brivati drew up the list with the help of a panel of experts from the Telegraph and elsewhere. Those working for the paper were excluded, unless they held other positions that gave them influence.

1 1 David Cameron MP
2 3 George Osborne MP
3 5 Andy Coulson
4 4 Michael Ashcroft
5 2 Boris Johnson
6 6 Steve Hilton
7 7 William Hague MP
8 8 Michael Gove MP
9 10 Edward Llewellyn
10 86 Dan Hannan MEP
11 17 Samantha Cameron
12 9 Michael Spencer
13 12 Margaret Thatcher
14 96 Philip Hammond
15 36 Eric Pickles MP
16 15 Liam Fox MP
17 58 Kenneth Clarke MP
18 NEW Peter Mandelson
19 19 Oliver Letwin MP
20 21 Tim Montgomerie
21 23 Iain Duncan Smith MP
22 16 Francis Maude MP
23 18 Patrick McLoughlin MP
24 77 Theresa May MP
25 33 Jeremy Hunt
26 14 Chris Grayling MP
27 54 Damian Green MP
28 11 Andrew Feldman
29 25 Dominic Grieve
30 31 David Davis MP
31 38 Matthew Elliott
32 20 Andrew Lansley MP
33 37 Greg Clark
34 85 Guido Fawkes
35 28 Thomas Strathclyde
36 22 Charles Moore
37 13 Sir Simon Milton
38 24 Nick Herbert MP
39 NEW Matthew Hancock, Rupert Harrison, Rohan Silva
40 57 Nicholas Boles
41 87 Nigel Farage
42 42 Michael Hintze
43 49 Jill Kirby
44 55 James O'Shaunnessy
45 48 John Redwood MP
46 47 Lord Harris of Peckham
47 NEW David Rowland
48 26 Stephen Gilbert
49 27 Robert Edmiston
50 66 Kit Malthouse