Why Roger Keyes could hold a coalition together

Was Roger Keyes politically capable enough to lead the coalition?

On this reading, Keyes was highly effective at building relationships and public trust despite not fitting a conventional political mould.

Party-political manoeuvring is separated here from relationship management. Keyes avoided looking like a conventional politician while carefully building friendships and managing his public reputation. That approach let him obtain support without appearing to trade openly in party advantage. When Churchill appointed him to lead Combined Operations, members across the House of Commons welcomed the choice as professionally legitimate. The same combination of personal trust, press awareness, and cross-party credibility would make him useful in a multinational command. His political skill lay in relationships that made an appointment look non-political.