Government asks Shaun Ryder to advise on class and help to detox the nation

After a week of gaffes, No 10 calls in the Happy Mondays singer who helps to launch a T-shirt campaign to banish 'pastygate' In a move that will astonish both critics and supporters, David Cameron has appointed the controversial Happy Mondays star Shaun Ryder as a special adviser on social class, following a series of political missteps since the budget. The decision is believed to have been taken after urgent discussions between the so-called Quad group of ministers, comprising Cameron, George Osborne, Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the treasury. The group feared that budget decisions to lower the 50p tax rate and raise VAT on hot takeaway food were in danger of retoxifying the Tories as a "party of the rich".



"It's been a terrible week and a half, and the thinking was that a bit of working-class nous and glamour would be very welcome," said a source close to Downing Street. "Discreet inquiries established that Ryder was not the committed Labour supporter that people might think he is." Spin doctors believe that his credibility and authenticity could rub off on a government that has increasingly lost the common touch. He will advise on presentation of all coalition policies that affect the least well-off. He has already devised a T-shirt which makes light of "pastygate", adapting the George Osborne mantra "We're all in this together". Celebrities including Claudia Winkelman, David Walliams, David Tennant and Miranda Hart have agreed to model the T-shirts, which picture Cameron eating a pasty alongside the slogan "We're All Eating This Together" and look set to become cult items.

Ryder, the lead singer of the re-formed Happy Mondays, said that he was taken aback when he received the phone call from No 10. "I never thought I'd see the day when the prime minister was ringing me for advice," he said. "But let's face it, after the past week or so, with pastygate and everything, they obviously need help. "People assume I'm a lefty because I'm working class and from Salford, but I'm not really. The Mondays were all children of Thatcher's generation. The hefty wedge they offered helped as well. It's funny because it seems like everyone else is paying for an invite to No 10 these days, and I'm the only one who is getting paid to go there, which is nice."



The former hellraiser gave up the wild lifestyle a few years ago and is now a changed man. Ryder aims to put an end to pastygate by bringing Cameron to a proper northern chippy in Salford. "My mam and dad ran a chippy, so I know what I'm talking about. Dave needs to be seen tucking into chips and gravy. Everyone knows you can't get decent gravy down south, so that will get him brownie points in the north." The singer and his manager Warren Askew will also invite Cameron to the Mondays' gigs. "Maybe I'll take him to see the Stone Roses as well, so he'll show he's down with the man on the street." Ryder also hopes this is the beginning of a special relationship that works both ways. "I want to run for mayor of Salford, so I'm hoping my new mate Dave can help me out."