Return to the frontbench In 2009, Clarke became Shadow Business Secretary in Opposition to the then-Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson. David Cameron flattered Clarke as about the only one able to challenge Mandelson and Brown's economic credibility. Two days later it emerged that Clarke had warned in a speech a month earlier that President Barack Obama could see David Cameron as a "right-wing nationalist" if the Conservatives maintained Eurosceptic policies and that Obama would "start looking at whoever is in Germany or France if we start being isolationist". The Financial Times said "Clarke has in effect agreed to disagree with the Tories' official Eurosceptic line".
Return to the frontbench In 2009, Clarke became Shadow Business Secretary in Opposition to the then-Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson. David Cameron flattered Clarke as about the only one able to challenge Mandelson and Brown's economic credibility. Two days later it emerged that Clarke had warned in a speech a month earlier that President Barack Obama could see David Cameron .as a "right-wing nationalist" if the Conservatives maintained Eurosceptic policies and that Obama would "start looking at whoever is in Germany or France if we start being isolationist". The Financial Times said "Clarke has in effect agreed to disagree with the Tories' official Eurosceptic line"