Tories accused of neglecting beliefs

The direction taken by Duncan Smith is under scrutiny

The Conservatives are told they must stop "spouting baloney" and say what they stand for if they want to return to power.

A report by the right-wing think tank, the Centre for Policy Studies, says the Tories can only restore their fortunes at elections by sticking to their traditional principles.

The problem the Conservative Party has is that it's spouting baloney

Rupert Darwall

Former Conservative special adviser Rupert Darwall argues in the report that his party is "paralysed" by Tony Blair's electoral success.

But shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram instead insisted the party was working up detailed and credible policies based on Tory principles like freedom and choice.

Mr Darwall warns against moving into the same ground as Labour in an effort to win votes.

'Feeling phoney'

The Conservatives must convince voters about Tory traditional beliefs like lower taxes and persuade them that Labour plans to raise taxes to pay for public services will not work, he argues.

Mr Darwall told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Tory spokesmen were terrified of making that case for fear of being accused of cutting hospitals and schools.

He said: "The problem the Conservative Party has it that it's spouting baloney.

Rupert Darwall was special adviser to then Chancellor Norman Lamont

"They say we are passionate about public services, we care about the vulnerable.

"That doesn't mean anything to anyone. People sense it's phoney. It's just mood music.

"What people want to know is where the party stands."

In the report, entitled The Time For Principled Opposition, Mr Darwall writes: "Far from the Conservative crisis being caused by the redundancy of its principles, the root of its difficulties lie in their neglect."

Frustration

He adds: "Arguments that the Conservatives should move to the centre, in a mirror image of New Labour, would finally destroy the party's chance of restoring its credibility."

The party has dismissed reports this week that some members are frustrated enough at the lack of reform of the party to consider breaking away and forming a new party.

But the report, published on Thursday by the think tank set up by Margaret Thatcher and Keith Joseph, shows leader Iain Duncan Smith is under pressure from both camps.

Michael Ancram says policy renewal cannot happen overnight

It says: "Today the Conservative Party appears paralysed - trapped between the fear that Tony Blair has colonised its ideological heartland and the fear that Conservative principles are inherently unpopular."

Mr Darwall, a former special adviser to then Chancellor Norman Lamont, accuses Tories who want the party to move closer to the centre of being "Vichy" style collaborators with the Labour government.

'Clear principles'

The charge that the party was neglecting its principles was denied by Michael Ancram on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

He highlighted key Tory beliefs - in choice, freedom of the individual, the family, in giving back power to communities and institutions and belief in the UK.

"These are clear Conservative principles," said Mr Ancram.

"What we are doing now is we are going to articulate the policies over the next two to three years which are going to deliver those principles in a way people can have trust in."

That process could not happen "overnight", said Mr Ancram, who argued the public would not believe his party too soon.

The MP rejected the suggestion his party was trying to seek the centre ground.

Instead, it was talking about the things which concerned the public - key issues like health, education, pensions and policing, he said.

'Drop leader and logo'

Later, the former Tory adviser behind the party's torch emblem, said the party should drop the logo, its leader and possibly even its name.

Michael Peters, from Identica Partnership branding advisers, said: "If the Conservative Party was a brand or a big business, they would be firing the people at the top and getting new people in."

The party had to offer a clear vision of what it stood for, said Mr Peters.

Recruiting a personality like David Beckham to the party would help it regain public trust, he added.