Tory relaunch overshadowed by leader's gaffe and nervous laugh

Iain Duncan Smith's attempt to relaunch the Tories as a tax-cutting party was undermined yesterday when he tried to laugh his way through a BBC radio interview and made an embarrassing football gaffe.

In a speech to businessmen, the Tory leader said the forthcoming national insurance rises for the NHS were a "tax on jobs" and called on the Government to scrap the move.

But earlier, he refused to answer questions on BBC Radio 4's Today programme about reports of in-fighting between his party's modernisers and traditionalists. Laughing nervously, he admitted his party was divided, but claimed that "that is the nature of politics and political parties" and that the public was more interested in real policies.

Mr Duncan Smith refused to explain why he had replaced Mark MacGregor, his modernising chief executive, with Barry Legg, a right-wing former Maastricht rebel. He claimed thatthe changes were "meaningless" and dismissed complaints from Michael Portillo that they represented a distracting internal battle.

"Let's mark the difference between what politicians say and the public is interested in," he said. "The British people did not ever take a real interest" in splits, he added.

Analysing the Tory leader's performance, Cary Cooper, a psychologist at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology specialising in occupational stress, said he appeared "nervous" and "threatened". Professor Cooper said that if he were called in to advise Mr Duncan Smith he would conclude: "Get out while the going's good."

On a visit to a school, Mr Duncan Smith said that he had not ditched his "inclusive" policy unveiled last year.

"What am I doing here in the school if our policy has changed?" he asked. "We are looking for better ways to present our policies. The rest is all nonsense."

But he upset his audience in Washington, Tyne and Wear, where most football fans support Sunderland, by praising their fiercest rivals, Newcastle United, for their 3-1 Champions' League victory over the German side Bayer Leverkusen.

"Let me take the opportunity as I am here in Newcastle to say congratulations to Bobby Robson, a man I do genuinely personally admire, but also to the team," he said.

The gaffe was seized on as Mr Duncan Smith's equivalent to William Hague's baseball cap and 12 pints, a gauche attempt to woo ordinary voters.

Peter Deakin, a Sunderland fanzine editor, said: "For somebody who wants to be seen as having his finger on the pulse, Mr Duncan Smith has scored a massive own goal." A Conservative Party spokesman said later: "There was no intention to cause offence to Sunderland supporters. We hope that Sunderland will win their relegation battle."

Mr Duncan Smith used his speech to accuse Labour of "six years of waste and incompetence", attacking the £7.4bn increase in national insurance contributions due in April.

He said that with the annual tax bill having risen from £270bn to £380bn since the Government came to power in 1997, Labour was reverting to type.

"We are witnessing the death of New Labour and the resurrection of Old Labour – the whole, hopeless cycle of tax-and-spend-and-fail. We have to break that cycle."

But as another leading moderniser, Theresa May, reportedly faced losing her post as party chairman, a former Tory chancellor, Lord Howe of Aberavon, warned Mr Duncan Smith of the need to maintain a broad-based team.

The 'Today' exchanges JOHN HUMPHRYS: Well, here it is out of the mouth of Bob Worcester, people don't know what you are and that's why you are not making the headway you should be. IAIN DUNCAN SMITH: I'm afraid very few people use Bob Worcester's polling anymore because most of his figures seem to lurch to extremes ... In two important polls we are only a point behind Labour. JH: Even if it's true that you are only a point behind them, that's still pretty disastrous. IDS: Ha ha. Oh dear, here we go again ... I'm not going to debate headline polls. You only report the ones that are bad. JH: We all want to know which direction the party is heading. IDS: Ha ha ... Why do you want to read the tea leaves, John, when you can hear the person who's in charge? JH: Because we get different messages, Mr Duncan Smith. IDS: No, you don't ... I made it clear when I started our priority was ... a package of reform for public services. JH: Let's clear it up. Are you a tax-cutting party? IDS: No, no, no, let's not clear that up. Let's clear up where the Conservative Party is ... JH: What is important is what is happening inside the Conservative Party if it is leading to divisions. IDS: Ha ha ha ha. JH: I don't know whether you genuinely find it amusing or whether it's driving you to distraction. IDS: Ha ha ha ... this is the most uninteresting subject that I can imagine. JH: Are you a modernising party, or are you not? IDS: No. What we are is a party that offers an alternative to Labour ... It's not some notional Westminster debate about whether this is a moderniser or a traditionalist. That's why any story on the other is an irrelevance. JH: But it isn't an irrelevance. IDS: Oh, come on ... ha ha. JH: This is a very serious point. IDS: Oh, is it? I'll take your word for it, John. SARAH MONTAGUE: Now here's an item that perhaps seems appropriate after that ... would it be OK to take drugs if they were risk-free?