Weekend wait for Tories' top team

Howard's shadow cabinet are likely to fight the next election

New Conservative leader Michael Howard has said he hopes to announce his shadow cabinet early next week.

On his first full day in his new job, Mr Howard told BBC Radio 2's Jeremy Vine programme: "It's a very important process and I'm not going to rush it."

But more important than who was sitting on his front bench was building a "team spirit" among all Conservatives, he said.

Mr Howard has argued he has mellowed since being in government but he said he did not regret his time as home secretary.

Clarke role?

The shadow ministers Mr Howard picks are likely to be on the team that fights the next general election.

Mr Howard said: "You will find when the names are announced, when the structure is announced, you will find that we are very serious about doing what the country wants us to do, which is to point up the failings of this discredited government, and come up with policies which will really show people that we can make a difference for the better to their everyday lives."

Not for us the spend today, pay tomorrow approach into which Labour are now falling Michael Howard Howard victory speech in full

Speculation is rife that his shadow cabinet will include some of the Tories' big guns.

Names circulating at Westminster as possible contenders for top jobs include shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin, shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram, shadow deputy prime minister David Davis and shadow health secretary Liam Fox.

On Friday former chancellor Ken Clarke signalled he might be willing to take a senior party role outside the shadow cabinet.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that "people like myself" on the Conservative left were vital if the party was to win back voters and broaden its support.

Asked if he would take a leading party role, Mr Clarke said: "I would be delighted to be supportive.

"After 10 years of civil war, which has made all of us extremely miserable and done a great deal of damage, we want to get back together."

Past mistakes?

Mr Howard was seen as a hardline home secretary in the 1990s and Labour has dubbed him "Mr Poll Tax" for his role in introducing the ill-fated community charge.

"I would not change the things I did when I was home secretary but I would, if I had my time again, explain them more effectively," he told Jeremy Vine.

The poll tax had appeared "very attractive" in theory but had been "wrong in practice", he argued.

We aren't going to duck any of the problems that face Britain. No retreat into blandness - no turning the other way Michael Howard Howard 'excited' by leadership Howard 'will not move seat'

Mr Howard said he hoped to cut taxes, but insisted: "If we can't identify the savings and show them to people we won't promise them tax cuts.

"I'm hoping we will, I'm fairly confident we will."

Some grass roots Tories are angry they have been given no vote on their new leader because Mr Howard was the only candidate.

The board of the Conservative Party is not now planning to have a vote of the entire membership to ratify Mr Howard's appointment.

John Strafford, head of the Campaign for Conservative Democracy, called that a "stitch-up" worthy of the Communist Politburo.

But Mr Howard argued that such views were held by only a tiny minority and most party members thought there were better ways of spending a quarter of a million pounds than on an endorsement vote.