The home secretary, Theresa May, above, is unhappy Norman Baker, below, has replaced Jeremy Browne as minister of state for crime prevention. Photograph: Reuters
Theresa May was said to be spitting tacks after Nick Clegg on Monday imposed as Home Office minister in the reshuffle a Liberal Democrat MP who questioned whether Dr David Kelly took his own life.
The home secretary was not consulted over the appointment of Norman Baker who took a year out from the Lib Dem frontbench to write a book which suggested that Kelly, a former government weapons inspector, was murdered by an Iraqi hit squad in 2003.
The transfer from the transport department of Baker, who also expressed doubts over the death of the former foreign secretary Robin Cook, led to the sacking from the Home Office of Jeremy Browne, a former Clegg ally regarded as one of the most centre-right of Lib Dem MPs.
Browne was furious with his sacking, which has prompted some Tories to suggest that the party should try and poach the Taunton Deane MP. The seat is a Conservative-Lib Dem marginal that Browne held with a majority of 3,993 at the last election.
Norman Baker.
The row between the Home Office and No 10 and among Lib Dems over the appointment of Baker overshadowed a ministerial reshuffle that was designed byDavid Cameron to show a more diverse Conservative party to Britain. Cameron has always intended to focus the changes on the middle and lower ministerial ranks.
There was only one cabinet change as Michael Moore was sacked as Scotland secretary to make way for the former Lib Dem chief whip Alistair Carmichael. Clegg and Cameron hope he will be a more effective campaigner against the SNP in the final year of the Scottish independence referendum campaign.
In the main Tory changes, Sajid Javid was lined up for a cabinet post in the next reshuffle when he was catapulted over the head of his colleague David Gauke to take the third most senior Treasury post as financial secretary. Esther McVey, the Liverpudlian former GMTV presenter, was also promoted to minister of state for employment at the Department for Work and Pensions.
The rapid promotion of Javid, a close ally of George Osborne who was only elected in 2010, marked a tightening of the chancellor's grip over the government. Osborne's former chief of staff Matt Hancock was promoted to minister of state in a joint position covering skills and enterprise at the business and education departments. Hancock is covering the same portfolios but has moved up a rung from his previous position as a parliamentary private secretary of state.
Another former parliamentary private secretary of Osborne, Gregg Hands, was promoted from Treasury whip to the government's deputy chief whip. Nicky Morgan, who is highly regarded by Cameron and Osborne, was promoted from the whips' office to Javid's old role as economic secretary to the Treasury.
The prime minister's spokesman said of the changes: "This is a reshuffle for talent and merit. It is not about camps and cabals or purges. It is about giving jobs to people who can do the job well.
"There are women coming in, there are people from all across the country coming in, they are from different ethnic backgrounds. It is about getting the best people in to do the job."
Downing Street declined to comment on whether the home secretary was consulted over the appointment of Baker. The spokesman said: "He is an experienced minister. He will be an important part of the ministerial team that will be taking forward that department's priorities."
But May was said to be furious that he replaced Browne as minister of state for crime prevention with responsibility for the national crime agency, drug and alcohol policy and forensic science.
Baker's book, The Strange Death of David Kelly, looked at the theory that the scientist did not kill himself but was murdered. An inquiry led by the former Northern Ireland lord chief justice Lord Hutton concluded that Kelly took his own life in July 2003 after a row over his role in briefing the former BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan, who claimed Downing Street had "sexed up" the 2002 Iraqi arms dossier.
In local newspaper reports of a town hall meeting at the time, Baker told his audience that he was "convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that this could not be suicide". He said: "It was not an accident so I am left with the conclusion that it is murder."
Baker has also been quoted in his local newspaper as suggesting that Cook, who resigned as leader of the Commons on the eve of the Iraq war in 2003, did not die of natural causes during a walk in the Scottish Highlands in 2005. Baker told the Argus: "Robin Cook was on Ministry of Defence land, I believe, when he died and certainly I have doubts over what happened." However, when the remark was repeated in another newspaper, he contact the author to say that he has no reason to think Cook was murdered and put the remark down to a "flippant comment".
Baker denied he is a conspiracy theorist. Asked about descriptions of him as a "conspiracy theorist", he dismissed the label, saying people "tend to use the term when they want to insult people".
His appointment to the Home Office follows the decision of Clegg to intensify efforts to differentiate the Lib Dems from the Tories. The deputy prime minister has made clear that immigration is one area where his party would be highly critical of its coalition partner.
There was irritation when the Tories introduced a pilot scheme in which vans toured some areas of London calling on illegal immigrants to return home. Browne was not informed of the scheme by his ministerial colleagues.
One Lib Dem source said: "Norman Baker is an outstanding minister. He will have his own portfolio but will be right across the entire home office brief."
Browne's supporters have said Clegg was sending out a dangerous signal by tolerating dissent on the left of the party from the likes of the business secretary, Vince Cable, but sacking a natural ally. Browne wrote an article for the New Statesman in which he said the Lib Dems should seek own all aspects of government policy rather than giving the impression of acting as an opposition behind the walls of Whitehall by imposing policies it dislikes.
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