Clarke says Tory leader has failed to make an impact

Kenneth Clarke, the former chancellor, broke his silence on the Tory party's woes yesterday to claim that Iain Duncan Smith had failed to produce any new policies since he became leader.

Mr Clarke's comments came as a poll showed Mr Duncan Smith was even less popular with the public than William Hague was at the same point of his leadership.

The Tory leader's allies dismissed the criticism, insisting that the annual conference, starting in Bournemouth on Monday, would underline the party's new emphasis on the vulnerable and public services.

But in an outspoken attack, Mr Clarke said most delegates arriving at the conference would be asking "where's the beef?" on key areas such as the economy, health and education. The Rushcliffe MP, who was defeated in the leadership race last year, also joined the growing chorus of senior backbenchers critical of Mr Duncan Smith's strong support for the Government over Iraq.

In an interview with BBC News 24's One To One programme to be shown today, Mr Clarke said the conference had to convince both the party and the public that the Tories were able to form an alternative government.

"The party's got to get its act together. It's got to make a impact. I think every delegate going to Bournemouth is thinking that as well. They'll be looking at the platform, they'll be looking at the leadership, and saying 'where is the beef?'," he said. "We actually do need some policies, we do need some new ideas. I think it's not remotely clear what a Tory government would do.

"What exactly would we do, not just about the vulnerable, and the problem of the urban poor which is very serious, but what about the health service? What about transport, what about foreign policy, and so on, what about the economy?" He added: "It isn't so much about it's going badly, it's just it isn't going. And so the key thing about this conference is that the party has got to do something to make itself sound relevant, to get the people interested in it, to make some sort of impact."

Mr Clarke backed Sir Malcolm Rifkind's criticism of the Tory leader's stance on Iraq. "I don't think we should just take the role of trying to demonstrate to the public that we are more enthusiastically behind George W Bush even than Tony Blair is," he said.

"I think plenty of Conservatives think the foreign policy is not to be America's poodle, to use the general jargon. I'm an Atlanticist, I'm a great supporter of the United States, but it doesn't mean you support everything that every administration does. The idea of joining some unilateralist attempt to change the regime in Iraq is something I'm not persuaded of the wisdom of."

An NOP poll for The Daily Telegraph showed only 11 per cent of the public thought Mr Duncan Smith would make the best prime minister of the three party leaders.

At the same stage of the last Parliament, Mr Hague was recording between 12 and 15 per cent approval and ultimately achieved a 20 per cent popularity rating at the general election last year.

The current Tory leader's rating matched that of Michael Foot at his worst when he was Labour leader in the 1980s. An NOP spokesman said: "To be this low is not terminal, but it is not very good."

Just as worrying for the Conservatives was their overall rating, slumping to 28 per cent, well below the level of the last election. Labour is on 41 per cent, with the Liberal Democrats up to 21 per cent.

A spokesman for Mr Duncan Smith dismissed the criticism last night, saying: "We are moving forward, not looking backwards, that's what the confe- rence is all about."