The new Tory frontbench team was unveiled by Iain Duncan Smith yesterday.

Bill Cash, the leader of the Maastricht rebels, is the new shadow attorney general, while other prominent eurosceptics Eric Forth and Ann Winterton have also been elevated to the shadow cabinet as shadow leader of the House of Commons and shadow agriculture secretary respectively.

The appointment of Cash forced party officials onto the offensive, saying his job was to advise the shadow cabinet on legal and constitutional issues and not to speak out on Europe.

The Tory left lost no time, however, in accusing their new leader of stuffing the shadow cabinet with Europhobe rebels.

In a separate move yesterday, the new Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, was made a privy councillor, which will allow him to receive confidential briefings on any military response to the terrorist attacks.