Conservative Party leader Mr William Hague was struggling last night to quell renewed ideological turmoil within party ranks with a speech designed to reach out to disaffected Thatcherites without backing down on the need for more "change and renewal" in the months ahead.
"Some people are bound to be nervous now that we have set off on our journey of change, but haven't yet arrived at our destination," he said after a week in which conflict over policy led to a shadow cabinet row, a public rebuke from Lady Thatcher, a Central Office leak inquiry and the sacking of a senior official.
Mr Hague, promising a "new mission" to improve public services through public-private partnership, insisted that he remains a Thatcherite as he was at 16. "I joined the Conservative Party because of Margaret Thatcher."
But the past week's uproar and muddle has further damaged his standing ahead of next Thursday's crucial local and devolution elections which could seal his fate as a doomed leader. Some Tories were yesterday comparing his leadership with Michael Foot's disastrous stewardship of Labour in the early 1980s. Labour was delighted at the Conservatives' shambles ahead of next week's mid-term verdict on the government.
Today's MORI poll for the Times brings bad news for the opposition on the eve of Mr Tony Blair's second anniversary in power.
Senior Tories watched aghast yesterday as the shadow cabinet dug itself into a deeper hole by claiming deputy leader Peter Lilley's controversial speech committing the Tories to high public funding for schools and hospitals was part of a "seamless web" of Tory policies dating back to the Thatcher years - apparently on Mr Hague's instruction.
Rallying his troops behind a "new mission", Mr Hague pledged a future Tory government to devote more attention to reforming public services and the welfare state.
He said the British people wanted the party to look at something broader than economic prosperity. "They want us to focus on the quality of life, which includes economic prosperity, but goes well beyond it," Mr Hague said.