Tory leadership candidate Mr Iain Duncan Smith yesterday promised he would take "decisive" action against extremists after the expulsion from the Conservative Party of one of his campaign activists linked to the British National Party (BNP).
The discovery that Mr Edgar Griffin (78), a vice-president of his leadership campaign team in Wales, is the father of BNP leader Mr Nick Griffin is a serious embarrassment for Mr Duncan Smith. So is Mr Griffin's expression of "sympathy" for some of the party's extreme right-wing policies.
The decision to remove Mr Griffin from his campaign team and Mr Griffin's expulsion from the Tories will go some way to limiting damage to Mr Duncan Smith's leadership bid, but his critics were quick to suggest that his campaign ensured he attracted right-wing extremists.
The Tories moved decisively to banish Mr Griffin, not principally because of his family links with the BNP - his wife, Jean, is also a member of the party and stood against Mr Duncan Smith in the June election - but for his suggestion that Tory and BNP policies on asylum were indistinguishable. Mr Griffin, who said Tories advocated housing asylum-seekers in "concentration camps" and that such views were similar to BNP policies, was also accused of answering a telephone at his home on behalf of the BNP, but he maintains he is not a member of the organisation.
Acting Tory party chairman Mr David Prior said the BNP's views were "abhorrent and are wholly incompatible" with the Conservative Party and an investigation into Mr Duncan Smith's Welsh campaign team is under way to determine why Mr Griffin's BNP links were not known earlier.
As Mr Griffin declared he was "absolutely shattered" by his expulsion after 53 years in the party, Mr Duncan Smith's camp was angered by comments from Mr Kenneth Clarke's camp that his "whole stance" attracted extremists.
Mr Clarke said he was "extremely glad" that Mr Griffin had been expelled, but the Tory party deputy chairman, Mr Steven Norris, went further and suggested that the Duncan Smith campaign encouraged extremists.
Demanding his opponents end their campaign of "vilification and smears", Mr Duncan Smith insisted that if he were elected leader he would root out any extremists in the Tory party. "I warn anybody else that has any similar beliefs, the Conservative Party under my leadership will take direct, rapid and decisive action against them," he said. "I intend to act very tough on anybody like this in the party."