BRITAIN: Members of the Conservative shadow cabinet rallied behind Mr Iain Duncan Smith last night following Lord Heseltine's call for an MPs' revolt to install Mr Kenneth Clarke as their leader.
Lord Heseltine, who was deputy prime minister in the Major government, called Tory MPs to rebellion, urging them to ignore existing rules giving grassroots members the final choice in a leadership contest by effectively imposing Mr Clarke as their parliamentary leader at Westminster.
While acknowledging that his proposal would amount to a "constitutional aberration", Lord Heseltine suggested such a move might entice Mr Michael Portillo to serve as deputy in a "dream ticket" leadership team, and that the membership would come to accept the new leadership as necessary to boost the party's chances of recovery.
Without a change of leadership, Lord Heseltine insisted, there was no prospect of the Conservatives standing "a ghost of a chance" of winning the next election, or of putting itself in contention to win the one after.
Mr Duncan Smith dismissed Lord Heseltine's intervention as "one of the most irrelevant stories" he had ever heard, while shadow chancellor Mr Michael Howard told the press: "You should not waste your time thinking about it."
Meanwhile, Lord Tebbit launched a blistering attack on his former ministerial colleague, branding him "a serial Conservative assassin."
While invoking memories of Michael Heseltine's role in the downfall of Mrs (now Lady) Thatcher, Lord Tebbit also reflected widespread Conservative irritation that he had reopened questions about the Tory leadership at a moment of acute and building embarrassment for Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife, Cherie, over their controversial property purchases and her connection with a convicted fraudster facing deportation from the UK.
"It cannot be a coincidence that just as the Blairs are floundering in a sea of sleaze, lies and incompetence, Michael Heseltine comes to their rescue with an attack on the Conservative leadership," said Lord Tebbit. "His fear is that Iain Duncan Smith might win the election and lead a Eurosceptic government that would refuse to submerge Britain in the proposed European republic."