Thatcher backs Duncan Smith

Thatcher: Believes Ken Clarke's views are old fashioned

Lady Thatcher has thrown her weight behind Iain Duncan Smith in the Conservative leadership contest, saying Ken Clarke would steer the party to "disaster".

In a letter published in Tuesday's Daily Telegraph, Lady Thatcher says the Conservatives would be deeply split under Mr Clarke, whose views have "had their day".

It's quite something to face Mrs Thatcher at your door, breathing fire under the doorway, coming in to threaten you

Ken Clarke

But Mr Clarke has hit back, saying the agenda advocated by the former prime minister would turn off young people and floating voters.

The exchanges come as the party's 300,000 party members wait for ballot papers and the two candidates' mini-manifestos to arrive on their doormats.

Restoring party fortunes

In her letter, Lady Thatcher said Mr Duncan Smith would restore the Conservative Party's "faith and fortunes".

She said: "I simply do not understand how Ken could lead today's Conservative party to anything other than disaster.

"He appears to be an even keener enthusiast for the euro than is the prime minister, let alone the chancellor.

Iain Duncan Smith: wants to make Europe a unifying issue

"He seems to view with blithe unconcern the erosion of Britain's sovereignty in Europe."

She said she feared that under Mr Clarke, the Tories would be exposed as a party weakened by confusion and contradiction.

"Time and again, Europe will be at the forefront of politics.

"Time and again, the Conservatives would be exposed as either hopelessly split or deeply cynical - either openly rebelling against their leader or going along with policies which they knew - and which others knew they knew - to be wrong."

'Learn election lessons'

There is speculation that the last Tory prime minister, John Major, may declare his support for Mr Clarke on Wednesday.

Meanwhile Mr Clarke, who on Tuesday morning wanted to focus his campaigning on the economy, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Lady Thatcher's support for Mr Duncan Smith came as no surprise.

Ken Clarke: is urging members not to focus on Europe

He continued: "Nothing is more likely to turn off young people and floating voters from the Conservative Party than the knowledge that we are going for the kind of agenda that Mrs Thatcher seems determined to force us on now.

"Mrs Thatcher's interventions in current politics are not the same as the kind of leadership she gave to the party 10 years ago."

'No way forward'

Mr Clarke said Tory members had been concerned by the way Lady Thatcher had tried to hijack party conferences in recent years.

He added: "She's got older, she's got ever more fixed views and the idea... she's going to address us about the future, that she's going to address us on how on earth we are going to win back the floating ground, and that therefore we have got to have a much more Eurosceptic policy than we had before... that is not the way forward."

His rival, Mr Duncan Smith, welcomed Lady Thatcher's intervention and denied it would "horrify" some voters.

"I welcome it obviously. I didn't, to be quite frank, expect her to come out quite so clearly, but I welcome it," he said.

"People will remember her as a great Conservative leader, who led us to a series of victories."

But shadow home secretary Ann Widdecombe said Lady Thatcher should keep her views private and leave the decision to the 300,000 members.

Economy warning

In a speech to business leaders in London on Tuesday, Mr Clarke forecast an economic slowdown in coming months and urged the government to be open about that fact.

He criticised his successor as chancellor, Gordon Brown, for continuing "to make reassuring noises and to cling to forecasts of economic growth for the next year or two which seem over optimistic".

Later, Mr Clarke will see party members in Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire while Mr Duncan Smith is beginning a day's visit to Wales, where he will meet assembly members and grassroots Tories.