He's already the Baron of Birmingham, but former CBI Chief Digby Jones is doing such a good job sticking the knife into the Government that the Tories think he deserves even more.

Lord Jones was given a House of Lords post by Gordon Brown when he briefly became a trade minister in the Labour administration.

But he's now a favourite with the Conservatives, as Hansard shows:

Mr. John Gummer (Suffolk, Coastal Con): "Is my hon. Friend aware that the former Labour Minister, Lord Digby Jones, said today that the Budget gave him no hope whatever about the future of British exporters and the British economy, and that it was a Budget without any kind of vision?

"Is that not an interesting comment from somebody who was sitting on the Labour Benches only a few weeks ago?"

[Shadow Chancellor] George Osborne: "It is a telling comment from a person who was appointed just days after the Prime Minister became Prime Minister.

"No doubt the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change [Ed Miliband] and his cronies, such as the Chief Secretary [Yvetter Cooper], plotted the appointment of Digby Jones for months.

"They thought it would be a brilliant appointment. I have to say that some Members, including me, were sceptical about whether he should really be Lord Digby Jones of Birmingham, but given how helpful he is being at the moment I think that he should indeed represent an entire city in the House of Lords."

Miss Julie Kirkbride (Bromsgrove) (Con): "And Bromsgrove."

Mr Osborne: "Indeed. He can have a dukedom as far as I am concerned."