Tory leader 'made misleading claim about his education'

Iain Duncan Smith was facing fresh questions about his past last night as he tried to relaunch his leadership of the Conservative Party.

The Tory leader moved to quash fresh dissent among his backbenchers by sending them off for the Christmas break with a pledge to "step up a gear" and take a tougher approach to opposition in the New Year. Mr Duncan Smith in effect called on MPs at the powerful 1922 Committee to give him more time to make inroads into Labour's lead.

However, his personal reputation came under a new attack when BBC's Newsnight claimed he had made misleading statements about his education. Mr Duncan Smith's office admitted to the programme that he had not attended the University of Perugia, as claimed in his Who's Who entry. Instead of attending the medieval university, he attended a language school founded in 1928. Newsnight also threw doubt on Mr Duncan Smith's claim to have been "educated at Dunchurch College of Management".

MPs from both the left and the right of the party have in recent days expressed dismay at the latest ICM opinion poll putting the Tories on 27 per cent, just four points ahead of the Liberal Democrats. Labour is on 41 per cent.

In his speech to the 1922 committee, Mr Duncan Smith said he was "not going to pretend that the last year has always been easy". He added: "But now is the time to show the steady nerves and steely determination that has made us the most successful democratic force in history."

The first indication of the new approach came at the final Prime Minister's questions of the year, with short, sharp questions about Labour's "broken promises" on pensions, road congestion and truancy.

In a highly-charged atmosphere, backbenchers on both sides cheered and jeered Tony Blair and Mr Duncan Smith in turn. But Mr Duncan Smith won the most applause when he replied to Mr Blair's responses: "You're not juggling balls, you're talking them." The remark was a reference to Mrs Blair's televised apology last week over the "Cheriegate" affair.

Politicians were cheered by the performance but several Shadow Cabinet members expressed their continuing unease at the opinion polls.

MPs have dismissed efforts by Mr Duncan Smith to insist that the party expects gains of only 30 seats in May's local elections. They will instead seize on the share of the national vote in the polls. If it has not gone up significantly, some are prepared to launch a challenge.

Some on the right believe that Michael Howard, the shadow Chancellor, offers the best hope of beating Kenneth Clarke if a leadership challenge is launched after local elections.

Newsnight claimed that the Tory party website stated that Mr Duncan Smith had been educated at Dunchurch College of Management. In fact, Dunchurch was the former staff college for GEC Marconi, for whom he worked in the 1980s.

Mr Duncan Smith's office told Newsnight that he did not get any qualifications at the college but that he completed six separate courses, each lasting a few days.