Ministers who play the name game The approachable Mr Shapps is regarded by some as a possible future Conservative leader, and his appointment as co-chairman this summer was seen as the latest attempt to make the party look modern and in touch. It is hard to imagine him calling a policeman a "pleb" and a "moron" as Mr Mitchell is alleged to have done, but then it is impossible to think of the Chief Whip presenting himself as a smiling, ultra-positive internet guru. Andrew Mitchell is a decade older than either the Prime Minister or Mr Shapps, at the age of 56. One of the richest men in the Commons, he lives comfortably on the proceeds of the sale of his family wine merchant company, El Vino, and a previous career in the City. As the son of a former Conservative junior minister, he is very proud of being the fourth in a line of Mitchells to serve as an MP and compares politics to the priesthood, as a vocation. Critics say he is smug, swaggering and superior, with a strong sense of entitlement. Even his friend, Gyles Brandreth, the former Tory MP, described him as "almost crazy with ambition." Much has been made of how he was nicknamed "Thrasher" at Rugby School. That may not be true. He denies it as a later invention of Private Eye, but has boasted of being "a strict disciplinarian" as head boy of his house. Elected to Parliament in 1987, his ruthlessness, knowledge of the party and the people who might rise up against Mr Cameron are among the reasons why he was made Chief Whip. He lives in a £2 million house in Islington as well as his constituency home in Sutton Coldfield, and also has a ski chalet in France. His wife is a GP and their two daughters have grown up. In contrast, the ebullient Mr Shapps still has a young family. He lives in his constituency of Welwyn Hatfield with his wife, Belinda, and their three children. The Minister without Portfolio, as he was appointed this summer, is Jewish. He once told the BBC that he was "always quite entrepreneurial." He set up his own company at the age of 21 and saw PrintHouse Corporation boom. He established the internet marketing site HowToCorp, but transferred his shares to his wife in 2008. In 2010, HowToCorp published a self-help book by "Michael Green," called How to Bounce Back from Recession. It said: "For those who have had their incomes severely impacted or reduced, you have an opportunity to eat better, slow the pace, shop smarter, clean out the useless, seldom-used, or forgotten items for cash or recycle." If David Cameron loses patience with either of them, one of these two very different men may find they have that opportunity soon.