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Originally, Mrs. Thatcher had been expected to make her friend and mentor Sir Keith Joseph shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. Rather than risk an open fight with party moderates and progressives who abhor Sir Keith's right-wing fiscal views, she named Sir Geoffrey Howe; Joseph was put in charge of party policy and research. Party Chairman William Whitelaw, whom she defeated in the balloting for Heath's successor, became Deputy Leader and Ian Gilmour, another progressive, was named shadow Home Secretary. On balance Mrs. Thatcher so far seems to be doing surpassingly well. A Gallup poll published late last week indicated that the Tories now enjoy a popular lead over Labor of 4%—compared with a Labor lead of 14½% just a month ago.
* The most serious allegation was that he had used his official position to obtain contracts for John Poulson, an architect who had had business dealings with Maudling. Poulson had paid about $50,000 into a charity with which Maudling's wife was associated.