ConservativeHome's ToryDiary

Interviewed on this morning's Today programme David Cameron made it clear that he would be sticking to his programme of modernisation.  The Conservative leader was quizzed first on Ali Miraj's overnight attack (read it in full here) for his alleged obsession with PR.  Mr Cameron responded with a direct questioning of his critic's motives:

"I think listeners will draw their own conclusions about someone who one day asks for a peerage, to be elevated to the House of Lords, and the next minute launches a great attack on the leader of the Conservative Party."

I think we can safely say that Ali won't be joining the green or red benches any time soon as a Conservative.  Tune into Radio 4's World at One for Ali Miraj's response.

Mr Cameron was also asked about other criticisms from Graham Brady, Lord Saatchi and Lord Kalms.  Eschewing bridge-building he said that Mr Brady's views had to be understood in light of his resignation over grammar schools and Lord Kalms had backward-looking views and had never supported him as leader.  He said that he understood many of his reforms had been unpopular but that there would be no U-turns:

"When you make changes to the party as I have done, when you put it in the centre ground, when you change the policy on the NHS and say it there for everyone not opt-outs for a few, when you are as clear as I am that you have got to have economic stability before tax cuts, not everyone is going to agree."

He said that opinion polls come and go but the fundamentals of Labour failure would soon reassert themselves.

"When you look at the fundamentals, what's going wrong in our NHS, the fact that there isn't proper discipline in schools, the fact that the Government said 'we would give you a referendum on Europe' and now won't.  When you look at the fundamentals I don't think we are seeing real change in this Government and I don't think Gordon Brown can be the change the country needs."

1.15pm update: Speaking on the World at One Ali Miraj accused David Cameron of attempting to smear him and of a complete lack of integrity.  He pointed a finger at Andy Coulson and reminded readers of the royal phone bugging scandal that the new Tory Communications guru was associated with when he edited the News of the World.  He now seems on a mission to cause as much damage to Team Cameron as possible.

''I think it really is barmy to be jetting off to do this in the middle of the local election campaign. There will be Conservatives all over the country knocking on doors, and where is he? He's off looking at glaciers in Norway. I'm afraid he's missing the target - it just has the feel of a gimmick..."

That was what "a senior member of Mr Cameron's shadow cabinet" told last Monday's Daily Telegraph about the Tory leader's visit to a Norwegian glacier (for which Mr Cameron left London this afternoon).

In an interview with The Parliamentary Monitor Francis Maude described the "unattributable briefing" as "pathetic":

"It is obviously very unhelpful if anyone in a senior position in the party makes disobliging remarks to the media. That is a habit we thought we had grown out of and we need to grow out of it... They should just shut up, get on with the job or perhaps even better leave. If they don't like what is being done then being a backbench Member of Parliament is a perfectly honourable thing to do."

Mr Maude, who recently acknowledged the electoral mountain that the Tories still had to climb, also used the interview to insist that David Cameron's honeymoon was not over:

"Ok we are not far enough ahead in the polls to win an election but we have significantly improved from where we were flatlining for 14 years. So are we in better shape? Yes we emphatically are... I think David still attracts an extraordinary amount of attention, he's still a very interesting figure for the media and the public and he does reflect and represent change. There'll be much more from him."

Editor's comment: "Francis Maude is absolutely right to insist that shadow cabinet ministers do not brief against the leader.  "Unattributable briefings" from the Blair and Brown camps are damaging Labour in the way they once damaged the Conservative Party.  We must not lose the discipline that was the key achievement of Michael Howard's time as leader.  Choosing to go public with his concerns was not necessarily such a wise move, however, by the Conservative Chairman unless he is trying to pre-empt further frontbench disloyalty."

It may be David Cameron's big speech day but Norman Tebbit is determined to grab a bit of attention for himself.

In a speech to the Bow Group the former Tory Chairman and self-appointed keeper of the Thatcherite flame will "compare the Tory leader to the communist dictator Pol Pot over the way in which he has tried to "purge the memory of Thatcherism"" (Telegraph).

This is the second time this month that Lord Tebbit - who backed David Davis for the Tory leadership - has questioned the new leader's strategy.  Lord Tebbit told today's Telegraph that UK elections "are won by the party that gets its own traditional supporters out and discourages those of the other parties from doing the same".  Lord Tebbit clearly believes that Mr Cameron's eschewal of tax cuts and refusal to talk about Europe, crime or immigration will demotivate the party's core supporters.

Lord Tebbit's wide-ranging speech will ask the following questions:

"Is he really 'New Labour Lite', a Tory wolf in Lib Dem sheep's clothing, or a Lib Dem sheep leading a pack of Tory wolves?  Or is he the partys Chairman Mao or Pol Pot intent on purging even the memory of Thatcherism before building a New Modern Compassionate Green Globally Aware Party somewhere on the Left side of the middle ground?"

Mr Cameron also comes under fire from the party's Europhile wing.  Edward McMillan-Scott, former leader of the Tories' MEPs, has told The Scotsman that "Mr Cameron seems to be working towards the centre at home and yet moving to the extreme right abroad as fast as he can."  William Hague will be visiting Brussels today as he seeks to implement his leader's decision to leave the EPP.  The decision may be controversial amongst the party's Old Europeans but it won the agreement of 76% of party members in last week's survey of the ConservativeHome Members' Panel.

Simon Heffer, Melanie Phillips, Peter Hitchens, Jeff Randall, Irwin Stelzer, Fraser Nelson, Geoffrey Wheatcroft... and now Norman Tebbit.

Former Tory Chairman Lord Tebbit is the latest right-of-centre/ conservative thought leader to express concerns about the direction of 'Cameron's Conservatives'.  In an article for The Sunday Telegraph, Lord Tebbit writes:

"Of course Mr Cameron is right to see that the Conservative Party has to change. Margaret Thatcher saw that too. Nor are all Mr Cameron's changes ill advised. I had been trying to bring Conservative environmentalists on board the party for a long time and I am pleased to see Zac Goldsmith joining, despite his opposition to nuclear power.  Nor should Tories be ashamed of Mr Cameron's concern with world poverty, but throwing money at corrupt dictators because they have ruined their economies will help neither poor Africans nor poor British.

The trouble is that we have other problems here at home. With selection on ability (but not ability to pay) and vouchers ruled out, how will we improve our schools? If the Treasury alone can finance hospitals, how can they be run for patients and not for the Treasury?  New Labour has all but destroyed occupational pension schemes. Would Chancellor Osborne take the Treasury's greedy hands out of pension funds?  How would Cameron deal with multiculturalism, which threatens social stability? Would he encourage marriage and stable families? Could he free us from our masters in Brussels?"

As some visitors have started to discuss on this earlier thread, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, John Major's last Foreign Secretary, has decided to return to the backbenches.  Sir Malcolm has issued the following statement:

"I am delighted that David Cameron has been elected Leader of the Conservative  Party. He will have my full and unqualified support.

Two weeks ago I indicated to him that it was my intention, over the next two or three years, to concentrate, in Parliament, on foreign policy and on Britain's relations with Europe, with the United States, and with the wider international community. It is essential that the Conservative Party develops a strong, attractive and forward-looking policy on these issues.

I informed David that, in the event of him becoming Leader of the Party, I would be very happy to concentrate on foreign policy from within the Shadow Cabinet if that would be helpful. If, however, he had other plans in regard to this and other senior positions in the Shadow Cabinet, it would be my intention to work for the Party from the backbenches. This is what I now intend to do over the period ahead."

Editor's Comment: "In other words Sir Malcolm wanted to be Shadow Foreign Secretary and has quit the frontbench when the job was given to William Hague.  He cannot realistically have expected to get this job, however.  David Cameron is a supporter of the war in Iraq and he could not have put an opponent of that necessary stage of the war on terror in such a position.  It would have been a recipe for conflict or deadlock.  Sir Malcolm's expectations of such a post were as unrealistic as his leadership bid.  Sir Malcolm has a great brain and he promises to be loyal but I expect him to become a leading critic of Team Cameron's policies on Iraq etc.  With Hague (Foreign Affairs), Fox (Defence), Osborne (Chancellor) and Davis (Home Affairs) there is going to be no retreat on Iraq etc from Cameron's Tories."