Leadership boost for Redwood

Boost for John Redwood's Tory Leadership Hopes

John Redwood's Tory leadership hopes have been boosted by the declarations of support from two prominent right wingers.

John Townend, chairman of the influential right wing 92 Group, and arch Euro-sceptic Bill Cash both said they would be backing the former Welsh Secretary.

Mr Townend praised Mr Redwood for having had the "guts" to resign from the Cabinet and challenge Mr Major two years ago.

"He cannot be held responsible for the fudge, incompetence, sleaze and failure of the last government which resulted in our biggest defeat for 200 years", he said.

It is generally accepted that former chancellor Kenneth Clarke, as the sole candidate of the centre left, will come out top in the first ballot, but without a sufficient majority for an outright victory.

This has led to a jockeying for position among his four right wing opponents in the contest to establish themselves as the candidate best placed to challenge him in the later rounds.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4, Michael Howard suggested that he and Kenneth Clarke were the only two "heavyweight" candidates in the contest and he was therefore the only contender who could stop Mr Clarke.

Mr Howard said he was expecting to go on to the final ballot and win the leadership contest.

Meanwhile, the youngest candidate, William Hague, sought to boost his campaign with a strong attack on the Prime Minister.

In a speech to the Welsh Tory Party, Mr Hague described Tony Blair as "the Swampy of British politics", accusing him of "squatting" on territory that he did not own.

Hague slams Blair in speech to Welsh Tories

He urged Conservatives not to be mesmerised by the size of Labour's majority and insisted that they could still win the next General Election.

The latest odds for the contest from bookmakers William Hill are Kenneth Clarke 5/6 favourite, with William Hague as 6/5 second favourite, Peter Lilley at 11/2, Michael Howard at 16/1 and John Redwood as 33/1 outsider.