Blunt in new attack on Tory leader

Crispin Blunt says he is putting the party first

Iain Duncan Smith has come under fire again from Crispin Blunt, who in his latest attack said the Conservative leader was "not the best person" to take the Tories back into power.

Mr Blunt quit the party's frontbench on 1 May calling for Mr Duncan Smith to be replaced just hours before it emerged the Tories had won more than 500 seats in local elections.

The outcome of the poll was widely seen as bolstering the Conservative leader's position.

Mr Blunt's latest comments were rejected by Tory chairman Theresa May who said Mr Blunt was "out of step" with the rest of the party.

He told Sky's Sunday with Adam Boulton programme: "We can win with Iain. The trouble is it's going to be much more difficult to win with Iain."

"I think it is pretty clear, otherwise I wouldn't have publicly made the statement that I have, that Iain is not the best person to make the case for the party to the country as our leader and therefore as our chief spokesman.

Time for closure?

"Now is the time, if my colleagues agree with me, to come to that judgment, to simply make the professional decision to say we need someone who is going to put our case more effectively and then move on.

"Equally, if my colleagues don't come to that judgment and don't agree with me, then we can't let this issue run and run, we have to close it."

Mr Blunt was asked how much support he had for his view of Mr Duncan Smith.

"The issue here is that no one has actually disagreed with my analysis of our problem," he said.

"The question is whether colleagues are going to share my judgment that we actually need to do something about that."

Vote of confidence?

Mr Blunt said he believed that some of his colleagues might have written to the chairman of the Tory backbench 1922 committee, chaired by Sir Michael Spicer.

"From what people have told me I know there are some, I simply don't know how many."

He added: "It will become clear, perhaps in mid-June, if Sir Michael Spicer (chairman of the 1922 Committee) has received 25 requests for a vote of confidence, then obviously we will know because there will then be a ballot."

Mrs May said that the local election poll showed that Mr Duncan Smith had done the right things.

"One of the first things Iain did when he became leader was to set us on the very course that is now starting to lead to the successes that we have seen over the past couple of weeks."