Two More Tories Join Battle For Party Leadership
Two more leading candidates have joined the battle to lead the Tory party - the former Welsh Secretary, William Hague, and the former Health Secretary, Stephen Dorrell.
Launching his bid, Mr Hague told a Westminster news conference that the Conservatives needed to change in order to win. But he insisted that they must not abandon their basic principles.
"I believe after 18 years in office and a heavy election defeat we need a fresh start and I am best placed to provide that," he said
"I believe the Conservative Party can rapidly regain its strength, its self belief and its will to win. But if it is to do so a great many things about it have to change," he added.
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Dorrell: Leadership bid
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The former Health Secretary launched his bid for the party leadership with a personal rallying call to remaining Tory MPs. Mr Dorrell told his parliamentary colleagues he was the man to "rebuild the Conservative coalition" and win the next general election.
In a letter to Conservative MPs, he outlined his priorities for leading the Tory fight-back.
"I am standing as somebody who wants to see a future rebuilt for the Conservative Party," Mr Dorrell told BBC TV's Breakfast News
The decisions of Mr Hague and Mr Dorrell take the number of contenders so far to six. The other declared contenders are the former Chancellor Kenneth Clarke, the 1995 leadership contender John Redwood, the former Home Secretary Michael Howard and the former Social Security Secretary, Peter Lilley.
Mr Lilley's campaign received a powerful boost when he won the endorsement of the former Education Secretary Gillian Shephard. She has announced that she will not be running for the leadership.
"He brings a clarity of intellect to the task of leading the Conservative Party. He also enjoys very widespread respect and he has a successful experience of leading two very large departments of state," she said.
"Mr Lilley is a Euro-sceptic, He is dry economically. But he has proved, through his work both at the DTI and at the DSS, that he has a deep understanding of the economic motors of this country and also a compassion which is at the heart of the work he did at the DSS and which has been very widely respected," she added.
Mr Major meanwhile has met the Tory Chief Whip Alastair Goodlad to put together a caretaker Shadow Cabinet.
The party chairman Brian Mawhinney will be involved in discussions relating to the timing of elections for a new backbench 1922 Committee chairman and executive.
Those elections will enable the party to establish a timetable for election of a new leader, though it is a process unlikely to be completed within the month.
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