Tory hopeful's 'lost cause' fear

William Hague at first refused to believe the remarks were real

A Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate has said that his party is seen as a "lost cause" with an unpopular leader and a party organisation in crisis.

The frank acknowledgement was made on the local party website of Nigel Hastilow, the Tory candidate for the Labour seat of Birmingham Edgbaston.

On the face of it, we've never had it so good

Tory candidate Nigel Hastilow

But Mr Hastilow argued that the Tories had to win the next election in order to save the "heart and soul of this country".

Mr Hastilow's website column for January 2001 warned that "the Conservative Party is a lost cause. Its leader is not popular, its policies have all been aped by New Labour, and its personalities are still mired in sleaze.

"Every time William Hague manages to land a few good punches on the prime minister, something else goes horribly wrong for the Tory leader and he's back where he started - struggling to re-ignite a party which seems to have lost the fire needed to do battle and lost the will to win."

Confronted with Mr Hastilow's comments, Mr Hague said: "I doubt whether the Tory candidate for Edgbaston said that. Knowing the candidate for Edgbaston, I find it extremely unlikely."

Comments were genuine

But officials at Conservative Central Office later conceded that the comments were genuine, saying they had first been written a year ago in an article explaining why Mr Hastilow had given up his post as editor of the Birmingham Post to become a Tory candidate.

"It's a year-old article setting out the reasons why he wants to be a Conservative MP, which he will be after the election," a Tory spokesman said.

He added that Mr Hastilow would not face any reprimand and the party was content for the comments to remain on his website.

In his piece, Mr Hastilow also said that the Labour Party was in a strong position.

"On the face of it, we've never had it so good. The economy's doing fine, thanks to the Tory legacy - people are prospering, unemployment is falling, interest rates are low.

People may 'stick with Labour'

"There's nothing much to worry about. Therefore many people will stick with Labour rather than rock the boat," he wrote.

That was despite the fact that any apparent prosperity was "superficial" and he criticised what he said was a record of tax hikes, a third world health service and falling police numbers under the current government.

"If the Conservative Party is a lost cause, then so is the country most of us grew up in and continue to love. And I do not believe the forces of conservatism are ready to concede defeat," he argued.

Later, Mr Hastilow appeared to backtrack on the contents of the column saying that he should "update his website more often".

Citing the number of votes polled by the Tories in Birmingham and nationwide in local elections, he said that the party's fortunes had improved since he originally wrote the article.

He said: "William Hague has taken our party a long way since I wrote this article."

"When William visited Edgbaston last year on "keep the pound" day, he received a warm and effusive welcome from everyone he met."

Mr Hastilow added: "The clear message is that I should update my website more often."