Clarke returns to Tory frontline

Colourful former chancellor Kenneth Clarke returned to frontline politics on Monday, in the latest sign of parties manoeuvering for an election which must be held within 18 months.

Clarke, a minister under Margaret Thatcher known for his love of jazz, drink and cigars, was promoted to the front bench as business spokesman for the opposition Conservatives.

Speculation about a possible snap election has mounted in recent months, fueled by resurgent opinion poll ratings for Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who succeeded Tony Blair in June 2007.

Brown, whose standing has been boosted by his perceived strength in face of the global financial crisis, must in any case call an election by May 2010.

"It is going to be a historically important election, and I don't want to sit on the sidelines -- I want to be out on the pitch fighting for the change Britain needs," said Clarke.

The 68-year-old held a succession of ministerial posts under then premier Thatcher and her successor John Major in the late 1980s and 1990s, rising to chancellor from 1993 until Blair's Labour party swept into power in 1997.

He is widely seen as a political "big beast", and will go head-to-head with another recently-returned heavyweight, former EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson who was brought back in as Business Secretary late last year.

Clarke is known for his pro-European views which in theory could put him at odds with more eurosceptic Tory colleagues under party leader David Cameron.

But he insisted: "I accept that the party has come to a settled view on European matters, and I will not oppose the direction David will set on European policies in the future."

The former health minister has in the past been criticised notably over his vice-chairmanship of British American Tobacco (BAT).

But the Conservatives hope the genial and straight-talking Clarke, known for his rumpled jackets and Hush Puppy shoes, will help widen their poll lead after it narrowed amid Brown's perceived strength in dealing with the credit crunch.

Clarke is no stranger to financial crises: he became chancellor in 1993 after so-called Black Wednesday, when the British currency was forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.

Returning to the frontline fray Monday -- coinciding with a huge new bank rescue package unveiled by Brown, Clarke said he wanted to help the country tackle "the gravest economic crisis I have known in my lifetime".

The ruling Labour party's opinion poll ratings slumped to some 20 percentage points behind the Tories in late 2007, but have revived to within a few points amid the credit crunch, before slumping marginally in the last month or two.

A YouGov survey just before Christmas put the Conservatives on 42 percent, against 35 percent for Labour.