Heseltine hints Clarke would be better leader

The former Deputy Prime Minister Lord Heseltine suggested yesterday that Kenneth Clarke would be a better Tory leader than Iain Duncan Smith.

In his first comments on the crisis that has engulfed the Tory leader, Lord Heseltine said: "The outstanding Conservative politician in the House of Commons today is Ken Clarke. You may not agree with him, you may not like him, but nobody can seriously doubt that he is the one that the British public know about, have feelings about and broadly, in the opinion polls, support."

Interviewed on Sky News, Lord Heseltine said that if the Tories were to regain power, some members of the present Shadow Cabinet would be dropped to make way for experienced figures such as Mr Clarke, Michael Portillo and Ann Widdecombe. "The fact is there would be a recasting of the present Shadow Cabinet to draw in the talents and draw in the names," he said. "Why are so many of the big names not part of the Shadow Cabinet? Why is Ken Clarke more or less ostracised?"

Lord Heseltine refused to speculate on whether Mr Duncan Smith would survive if the party did not mount a fightback in the local authority elections next May. "He is leader of the Conservative Party," he said. "He has got some way to go."