Clarke returns to Tory frontbench

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The 68-year-old "big beast" smiled to Conservative backbenchers as he sat down before the statement by Chancellor Alistair Darling on the latest banking bail-out.

And the newly-appointed shadow business and enterprise secretary received a barbed welcome from Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, who told MPs his return was needed to rescue the "floundering" Tory leadership.

He replaces Alan Duncan who will become Shadow Leader of the House of Commons .

Mr Clarke's appointment will pitch him directly against Lord Mandelson, whose reappointment to the Labour frontbench last year represented a similarly audacious gamble by Gordon Brown.

He expressed "delight" at returning to frontline politics - and insisted he would not rock the boat over Europe.

Mr Clarke said he had accepted the post of shadow business secretary because he wanted to help Britain tackle "the gravest economic crisis I have known in my lifetime".

"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," he said in a statement.

Mr Clarke - who stood unsuccessfully for the Tory leadership three times - said his pro-European views were "well-known".

"But 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," he added.