Will Ancram attack hurt Cameron?

Analysis
By Nick Assinder
Political correspondent, BBC News website

The fact that Tory grandee Michael Ancram believes David Cameron should return to core Conservative values will come as no surprise to anyone - the timing of his assault will, however, infuriate the party leader and his team.

The timing of Mr Ancram's assault could not be worse

At almost any other time, the former party chairman and deputy leader's criticisms would have caused only a minor ripple in party HQ and been dismissed as the ponderings of a figure from the party's past.

After all, he stood as leader in 2001 on this agenda and issued a pamphlet during the 2005 leadership contest setting out similar sentiments - this latest document is an update of that previous one.

And, until recently, Mr Cameron has appeared entirely relaxed about criticism from those he sees as representing the old guard, even using such attacks to underpin his message of change.

This time, however, things are different and the Cameron camp are seething that Mr Ancram has chosen this moment to pick a fight.

They will continue to dismiss him and insist that there will be no change of strategy or retreat from the centre ground back to the old, they believe, failed policies of the past on issues like Europe, taxation and the family.

Former minister Stephen Dorrell, launching the latest Tory policy review, led those hitting back at Mr Ancram, saying a retreat to the party's "comfort zone" would only spell electoral defeat.

Closed gap

The problem this time is that Mr Ancram's uncharacteristically strongly-worded attack comes as Mr Cameron is battling to regain some momentum after the "Brown bounce" saw the prime minister race ahead in the polls in his early weeks in the job.

Mr Cameron has weathered a series of similar criticisms over the past weeks but is now engaged in a carefully planned process of putting some flesh on the bones of his policy ideas.

Mr Dorrell proposed extension of Thatcher's right-to-buy

It seemed to be working with the latest opinion polls suggesting he had closed the gap with Mr Brown.

The attack coincided with the publication of the latest Conservative policy review group on public services which contains some significant new policies on housing, education and schools discipline for example.

What will be particularly galling is the fact, stressed by Mr Dorrell, that the policy suggestions included what would be an extension of Margaret Thatcher's hugely popular council house right-to-buy policy.

Party conference

But what will most dismay Mr Cameron and his supporters is the possibility that Mr Ancram's attack will suggest the party has still not thrown off its old habit of disunity and even removing its leaders at the first hint of trouble.

There is some suggestion Mr Ancram was himself reluctant to take his attack any further for fear of the damage it might do.

And the advice from modernisers like former minister Michael Portillo, like Mr Dorrell, was that Mr Cameron should continue his planned drive onto the centre ground.

The Conservative leader himself will be hoping this latest row quickly dies away and that voters' attention remains focused on the policy announcements being revealed over the weeks leading up to the party conference in Blackpool.

It remains the case that, despite Mr Ancram's pamphlet and some claims he has "lurched to the right", Mr Cameron shows no desire to fall into what many see as the Brown trap of abandoning that centre ground.