Tory leader's tirade against Blair fails to stave off revolt

Iain Duncan Smith won a temporary reprieve yesterday as the Tory conference in Blackpool wrapped a security blanket around him and gave a rapturous response to his scathing personal attack on Tony Blair.

Mr Duncan Smith delivered the best speech of his two troubled years as Tory leader, but rebel MPs remained determined to oust him and warned they would press ahead with plans to trigger a vote of confidence when they return to Westminster next week.

Allies of Mr Duncan Smith claimed he had "seen off" plotters who ensured that populist policies on pensions, health and education unveiled this week were overshadowed by speculation about his position. A hard core of dissidents will be hauled in to see David Maclean, the Tory chief whip, who will ask grassroots members in their constituencies to warn them not to force a leadership election.

After a difficult week, Mr Duncan Smith was forced to devote a key part of his hour-long address to taking on his critics head-on. "To those who doubt and to those who deliberate, I say this: Don't work for Tony Blair. Get on board - or get out of the way."

Abandoning his "quiet man" image of a year ago, he unleashed an unusually strong tirade against the Prime Minister, warning: "The quiet man is here to stay and he's turning up the volume."

He demanded: "Blair must go. You don't expect the earth - just a fair deal. But in Labour's Britain, Government is on people's backs, but never on their side."

He asked delegates: "Do you remember he [Blair] said he'd be whiter than white? Or do you most remember Ecclestone? Geoffrey Robinson? Mandelson's home loan? Mittalgate? The Hinduja affair? Mandelson - again! Scandal after scandal, scandals that revealed this Government's dark side."

But he said these were just a curtain raiser for what he branded the Prime Minister's "blackest act". He attacked Mr Blair for saying he had nothing to do with the naming of the government scientist David Kelly even though he had chaired the meetings that took the fateful decisions. He said: "His death was first and foremost a tragedy for those who loved him. But it shamed our country. It shamed our whole political system. Immediately after Dr Kelly's death, Tony Blair said he'd had nothing to do with his public naming. That was a lie. He is responsible. He should do the decent thing and he should resign."

Mr Duncan Smith accused the Blair Government of being "the most corrupt, dishonest and incompetent" of modern times. He also called it deceitful, shallow, inefficient, ineffective, mendacious, fraudulent and shameful.

On the Liberal Democrats, the Tory leader accused the frontbench spokesmen of being spendthrifts - and took a sideswipe at the party leader, Charles Kennedy. He said Gordon Brown was the biggest tax raiser in British history. He added: "But Charlie Kennedy wants to raise them even further, except on wines and spirits, of course.

"The Lib Dems want a local income tax, a regional income tax, and a new 50 per cent tax band. They pretend to be reasonable but they're not. They don't want to give convicted paedophiles, rapists and murderers tougher sentences ... they want to give them the right to vote. It's madness."

Mr Duncan Smith invoked Hugh Gaitskell, the Labour leader who promised to fight to save his own party in 1960, as he promised to oppose the new European Union constitution which, he said, would take away the power to govern Britain. "I will fight, fight and fight again to save the country that I love," he said. He defended his support for the Iraq war, while respecting the opinion of those who opposed it. "I believe passionately, deeply the world is better off today because Saddam Hussein is no longer running Iraq," he said.

He launched a Labour-style pledge card with his core beliefs - including hard work, rewarding people who play by the rules, small government, punishing criminals, low tax and protecting vulnerable people.

By comparison, he said, Labour had let down ordinary people. He said he sometimes wondered whether Mr Blair lived in the same world as other people and imagined the Prime Minister's "BlairWorld".

He said: "You see, in BlairWorld things can only get better. In BlairWorld crime is down. In BlairWorld taxes are low. In BlairWorld the trains run on time. Last week he ended his speech with an air of omnipotence. You see, in BlairWorld Tony thinks he's god. But people don't live in BlairWorld. They live in the real world - bedevilled by the daily hurt and failures of your Government, Mr Blair."

He added: "Last week in BlairWorld Tony boasted about winning against crime. On the same day in the real world a brave woman in Nottingham was shot dead defending her daughter from robbers.

"Last week in BlairWorld Tony claimed that the economy was strong. On the same day, in the real world, 550 workers at Britain's oldest commercial shipbuilders were made redundant.

"Last week in BlairWorld Tony talked tough on asylum. On the same day, in the real world, bogus asylum-seekers escaped from one of his pathetic detention centres when they should have been deported months ago. Tony Blair's all right for the telly but he's all wrong for the country. In the real world he's failing Britain."

The audience punctuated the speech with 20 standing ovations - some orchestrated by Tory officials - and applauded for nine minutes at the end.

Mr Maclean said the "barnstorming" speech had "killed stone dead" the plot against Mr Duncan Smith. "It's only half a dozen of them, they have tried their little plot and it has failed. My advice to these part-time MPs is to go back to business and industry and let the rest of the parliamentary party carry on the work to win the next general election," he said.

But Tim Yeo, the shadow Trade and Industry Secretary, said: "The judgement will not be the standing ovations. The judgement will be what MPs are saying next week when they have spent the weekend in their constituencies."

One MP who is determined to demand a vote of confidence next week said last night that he would not back down. "The speech was irrelevant, it is our position in the polls that matters and we're stuck in a rut with the current leader," he said. It is understood that many of the rebels did not watch Mr Duncan Smith's speech. Another senior MP said the speech had simply bought time, saying: "This is a ratcheting process, it may delay it for a week or a month and then it will ratcheted up again. They won't give up."

One group of young Tories is canvassing activists to see who they would "favour leading the party into the next general election". The Young Britons Foundation, a group with David Davis on its parliamentary council, lists Mr Duncan Smith, Mr Davis, William Hague, Michael Howard, Kenneth Clarke and Theresa May for members to choose between.