The Conservative Party leader, Mr William Hague, will be "honest" about the Tories' humiliating defeat at the election as the party conference opens in Blackpool today against the backdrop of an opinion poll which revealed support for the party was at its lowest since he became leader.
Arriving in Blackpool last night for his first conference as party leader, Mr Hague promised the week ahead would be "historic" and "momentous". Alluding to reports of rows within the party over Europe, he insisted there were "no splits."
Mr Hague will announce a "contract" with the party this week to enable every member to vote on key policies and procedures. He told Tory agents last night that under his proposals every party member would be involved in the selection of candidates for Westminster and the European elections in a radical move aimed at addressing the concerns of party activists who felt sidelined by the leadership vote in June.
Dismissing claims that concern over his party reform package threatened to overshadow the conference, Mr Hague said: "It's going to be a historic week for the party, but I hope it's also going to be a very honest conference here in Blackpool this week - honest about reasons for our defeat in the general election, honest with each other about the changes we have to make and honest with the country about what we're going to do in the future. So we're all looking forward to it."
One of the first items on the conference agenda will be the announcement of the result of Mr Hague's "back me or sack me" ballot on his leadership and the crucial endorsement of his party reform package.
Earlier the Tory party chairman, Lord Parkinson, attempted to explain Mr Hague's poor rating in the opinion polls, saying that although he had led the party for four months the electorate "simply don't know him."
Signalling only measured support for Mr Hague's reform package, Lord Parkinson said: "There are different views at the moment, but we will take a collective view and we will rally round it."
But on one issue at least he indicated that he did not agree with Mr Hague. "I think you cannot have tinkering with the Lords. If you're going to reform the Lords, it has to be a major reform," Lord Parkinson said.
Privately, senior Tories believe the party's popularity and that of the leader cannot sink any lower and the conference is the place to begin the Tory fight-back.
However, an opinion poll in yesterday's Daily Telegraph revealed that since Mr Hague won the leadership contest in June, support for the Tories had dropped to 22 per cent. The poll showed that only 27 per cent of Tory voters and 6 per cent of the overall electorate believed that Mr Hague would make a good prime minister. Mr Hague received a welcome boost from the Shadow Chancellor, Mr Peter Lilley, yesterday when he said he was in favour of giving MPs a free vote on the single currency.
The issue had been raised once again by the former chancellor, Mr Ken Clarke, who warned Mr Hague not to allow the party to lurch to the right by adopting an increasingly Euro-sceptic stance.
But Mr Lilley insisted it would be "wrong at present" to enter the EMU because Britain's economic cycle was "out of line" with other European economies and he predicted it would be "many, many years for those things to change and come right."
The former prime minister, Mr John Major, arrived in Blackpool later, accompanied by his wife, Norma. A tanned and fit Mr Major, who appeared cheerful despite the grey skies and persistent rain, was greeted by Lord Parkinson.