David Cameron was embarrassed last night by the decision of his business spokesman to go on a skiing holiday rather than touring Britain to learn about the recession.

As his colleagues fanned out across Britain to promote the Conservative party’s policies for business and families, Alan Duncan was in Davos in Switzerland on the annual MPs’ skiing holiday.

Mr Duncan has been the subject of considerable sniping in some parts of the Conservative Party recently, amid rumours that he may be replaced, perhaps by Kenneth Clarke, the former Chancellor.

A party spokesman said that Mr Duncan was not alone in missing the “Get Britain Working” events and pointed out that he is chairman of the all-party parliamentary ski team.

While Mr Cameron was in Manchester, George Osborne in Cardiff and William Hague in Tynemouth, 12 members of the Shadow Cabinet were away, the party said.

Mr Duncan said last night that he was on duty over Christmas and so was having his break now. “The great thing about me is I don’t have a family so I can be on duty when others aren’t,” he told The Times.

He said that he has his own separate programme of meetings. He had already conducted two nationwide tours and was delighted colleagues were playing a greater role in his area. He is also meeting the Swiss Chamber of Commerce during the holiday.

Mr Duncan is expected to be joined later this week by Caroline Spelman, the embattled Conservative Party chairman who is under investigation over the employment of her nanny. John Baron and Charles Hendry, two other Tory MPs, are also skiing.

In another setback last night, a leaked document showed that Tory leaders are unhappy with some general election candidates. They have created a “watch list” of candidates who have the potential to cause distractions, and have instituted fortnightly meetings to assess them.

The leaked minutes of a meeting in October say that there is particular concern about articles written by candidates on websites.

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