Howard seeks to lead Tories from centre

MICHAEL HOWARD last night laid claim to the Tory leadership, saying he wanted to lead the party from its centre and appeal to all its talents and all of Britain.

Mr Howard, after finally confirming his candidacy following the ousting of Iain Duncan Smith, disclosed he was going into talks with Kenneth Clarke the one remaining Tory "big hitter" who has yet to yield to what Mr Howard's supporters hope is an unstoppable momentum driving him unopposed to the post of party leader.

The shadow chancellor chose London's Saatchi art gallery to make his announcement, saying: "I am announcing today that I am a candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party.

"I pay tribute first of all to Iain Duncan Smith, to his courage, to his dignity, to his decency. and to what he has achieved for us in the last two years.

"This is a great party, the longest-standing, most successful party in the history of democracy. There has been no other party that has done so much or achieved so much as ours. We are its trustees. At its best, we have a party broad and generous, broad in appeal and generous in outlook a party capable of representing all Britain and all Britons.

"I will lead this party from its centre. I will call on the talents of all in the party and the party will expect all to answer that call."

Mr Howard said there was "no coup" to hand him the party leadership and, if there were no other candidate, he wanted to give the wider party the chance to ratify his appointment. "That is something I would be keen and eager to do," he said.

But as Tories began to dream of the ideal scenario of avoiding a divisive contest, there came the first warnings of grassroots

dissent, with two party officials in North Wales resigning over Mr Duncan Smith's ousting. Bookmakers William Hill stopped taking bets on Mr Howard becoming the next Tory leader.

Under the party rules, if only one candidate stands there can be "ratification" of his leadership by a ballot of all party members. Otherwise, MPs in a series of ballots whittle the number of candidates down to two, before those names are submitted to the party faithful. Mr Howard is so far the only MP to declare he will stand for election as leader.

Nominations for the post of Tory leader close at noon next Thursday.