Backers Want Positive Tory Leadership Campaign

Tory MP Simon Burns, who is backing former Health Secretary Stephen Dorrell, said, "We have to be positive and look forward. There is no point seeking to rubbish other candidates. We want an intelligent debate."

He said the most important thing for Tory MPs was how the party could win the next general election. "That is not achieved in a negative way by rubbishing other people. It is by seriously analysing how we can move forward, how we can get the policies right to rebuild the Conservative coalition," Mr Burns told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. He said Mr Dorrell was attracting an encouragingly "broad-based" support across the party.

David Wilshire - looking forward to John Redwood

Tory MP David Wilshire, who is backing former Welsh Secretary and 1995 leadership challenger John Redwood, told the programme, "We are all Conservatives. "All six are colleagues and people who could all lead the party.

"What I would say is: who is the person in my judgment who is best able to draw a line under the past - it's someone who didn't serve in the last government towards the end. Who is best able to listen to the Conservative party, re-enthuse it and help to win elections at local government level so that as a united party we can show the country the ravages that can be caused by new Labour and have a party that can rescue the country from the clutches of Labour?"

"He is a very close friend of mine. He is not someone who fits the caricature the media paint of him. He is the colleague above all else I have known over the years at senior level in the party who has listened to me and to party members, and acted on it," Mr Wilshire added.

Asked about press reports that former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher was backing Mr Redwood, Mr Wilshire said he would be delighted by her support. The same sort of comments were being made about Mr Redwood as had been made about her before she became leader, said Mr Wilshire, "and she blossomed from a new face, with people being critical, into one of the greatest leaders this country has ever had. I am quite convinced that the same is true of John Redwood.

However Baroness Thatcher has denied press reports that she is backing John Redwood. A spokesman for Lady Thatcher, who is currently in the United States, said "She is more than 3,000 miles away and has not decided who she will support and won't decide until she is back in this country and knows who is running in the campaign... Nobody knows who Lady Thatcher will support.It's nonsense."