Lilley: others should make way

Lilley outlines the shape of a Tory party under his leadership

Struggle to be Right's Frontrunner

Tory leadership contender Peter Lilley said he expected the other two right-wingers in the contest - Michael Howard and John Redwood - to stand aside if he beat them in Tuesday's first round of voting.

He told Breakfast with Frost: "I think it is certainly the case that whoever comes fourth or fifth are going to find it very difficult to imagine that they could go on to win subsequently. I would therefore have thought they would stand down and I would appeal to a very large number of their supporters to come over to me. I am probably best placed because I am the candidate who comes broadly from the right of centre who has the confidence of the right but with an appeal across the whole spectrum of opinion in the party."

For his part, Michael Howard insisted that he was best placed to beat Mr Clarke and appealed to Mr Lilley and Mr Redwood to rally behind his campaign once the first ballot was over.

"All published surveys show me ahead of the other two centre-right candidates and our private information indicates that I would pick up the great majority of transfer votes," he said. "The contest is increasingly coming down to a choice between me and Ken Clarke. The breadth of my support indicates that I am best placed to unify the party and win in the later rounds. I therefore hope that Peter Lilley and John Redwood will support me after the first ballot."

Redwood: denies being fifth

John Redwood denied suggestions that he was trailing in fifth place and indicated that he had no intention of pulling out after the first ballot. "The current figures of pledged and unpledged support don't show me coming last. I intend to carry on because I think the party has to make a decision,"

He went on: "I want to end the civil war in the party. I am not on the same platform as the other candidates. I am the only candidate who says very clearly: `You cannot have a single currency and keep a normal democracy in Britain. The other candidates are still going in for different kinds of fudge."

Hague: broad appeal

The other candidate in the contest, William Hague, emphasised his broad appeal. In an interview with GMTV's Sunday programme he said: "I think that puts me in a good position to unite the party after the election. So I am not basing my campaign on any faction, from trying to get votes from one bit of the party and not another." Mr Hague denied newspaper reports that former Premier Baroness Thatcher had expressed her opposition to his campaign, saying he had "extremely good relations" with Lady Thatcher.