Howard is too old for No10, says Heath

Michael Howard stands little chance of winning the next general election because he is too old and has a "history" from his time as a Minister, Sir Edward Heath said yesterday.

The former Conservative prime minister said it would be "very difficult" for the 62-year-old Tory leader to appeal to the younger voters he needs to win power. Sir Edward, 87, continued a tradition of unhelpful remarks about his successors in an interview with BBC1's Breakfast With Frost.

Asked whether he had marked Mr Howard down as a possible future leader of the party, Sir Edward said: "Not really, no. I am not questioning his abilities and so on, but of course he has got a history, which when it comes to an election will be brought out by the Labour Party, and the Liberal Party in particular. The real point is that he is 62 or 63 and if the Parliament goes on for the full time, he will be 65 [at the time of the election].

"Today, the Prime Minister of the day is appointed in the 40s. I think a whole lot of the population won't recognise somebody in their 60s as being a Prime Minister." He added: "Our purpose should be to have somebody there that generations lower down - the young people - can say, 'He will understand what we want and produce it for us'."

A spokesman for Mr Howard said: "All those working with Michael Howard at the moment know he is perfectly up to becoming prime minister. He has shown huge energy in his job as leader."

If the election takes places as expected in spring next year, polling day will fall shortly before Mr Howard's 64th birthday on 7 July. If the Parliament goes to its full term of spring 2006, Mr Howard will be nearly 65 at the election. Victory on either date would make him the oldest person to become prime minister for the first time since Winston Churchill, who was 65 years and 163 days old when he moved to Downing Street in 1940.