Clarke accuses leader of 'unnecessary' row

Iain Duncan Smith failed to stem the crisis of confidence in his leadership yesterday amid continuing turmoil over his "unite or die" warning to the Conservative Party.

Baroness Thatcher undermined the Tory leader by suggesting that he might not survive in his job. "The Tory party will last," she said. "I don't know about Mr Duncan Smith, because we all die. But the party doesn't."

Amid speculation that Mr Duncan Smith could be forced out by a vote of no confidence, two rival "dream tickets" emerged. Michael Howard, the shadow Chancellor, may win the backing of David Davis, the shadow Deputy Prime Minister, who may decide not to enter a leadership contest. Meanwhile, Kenneth Clarke may win the support of Michael Portillo, who is unlikely to stand.

Interviewed by The Herald newspaper in Glasgow today, Mr Clarke declared: "I am not at the moment contemplating standing for the leadership. Right now it seems as attractive a job as the chairmanship of Railtrack."

Mr Duncan Smith may rethink plans to give MPs a free vote on scrapping Section 28, which bans local authorities from promoting homosexuality. The move was aimed at keeping John Bercow in the Shadow Cabinet, but he resigned over the decision to impose a three-line whip in Monday's vote on gay adoption. Some Duncan Smith allies suggested that he was no mood to make further concessions to the party's "social liberals".

In the House of Commons, Mr Duncan Smith challenged Tony Blair over top-up university fees and Gibraltar. One MP said: "It was good enough. He didn't do disastrously." Another said: "A lot of colleagues think he is dead meat, and this made no difference."