Cash calls for funding overhaul

State funding of legal actions needs to be thoroughly reviewed, according to the new shadow attorney-general, Bill Cash, one of several solicitors appointed to the shadow front bench by recently elected Tory leader Iain Duncan-Smith.Legal aid is getting into bigger and bigger difficulties, and 'it's an injustice to those who cannot afford to fund themselves', Mr Cash - a partner at London-based William Cash & Co - told the Gazette.

He is the primary legal affairs spokesman.Mr Cash is opposed to capital punishment and in favour of toughening counter-terrorism laws to meet the immediate threat from extremists.

But on further European integration, which he famously opposes, he is resolutely tight-lipped - for now.Solicitor Humfrey Malins - another backbencher brought in from the cold - says he is the first MP to be a deputy district judge and Crown Court recorder.

He becomes a spokesman for home affairs, with a brief for asylum, immigration, criminal courts, the police and prisons.Elsewhere Stephen O'Brien, formerly in-house with Redland, for which he now works as an international consultant, becomes a whip.Mr O'Brien is also standing in as director of Mr Duncan-Smith's private office until a formal appointment is made, 'I'm delighted he asked me to do that,' he said.Returning to prominence - albeit in opposition - is Gary Streeter.

The former partner with Plymouth firm Foot & Bowden was a Lord Chancellor's Department minister under John Major, and now becomes a vice-chairman of the party.Eleanor Laing (Epping Forest), formerly an in-house solicitor, becomes a frontbench spokeswoman for education after working in the shadow whips' office.

She is joined by fellow solicitor Alistair Burt, who was a social security minister in the Major government.Another new front bench spokesman Nigel Waterson, senior partner and founder of Eastbourne firm Waterson Hicks, moves to trade and industry after a spell as an opposition whip.Jeremy Fleming