Tories launch campaign to champion the vulnerable

The Tories launched a campaign yesterday to persuade people that they will champion the most vulnerable in society.

David Willetts, the shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, spent last night with homeless people, refugees, the mentally ill, charity workers and police in London to experience life at the sharp end.

His all-night tour was intended to counter scepticism about Iain Duncan Smith's crusade to reposition the Tories as the party that will represent the interests of the vulnerable and to tackle perceptions that the Tories are "out of touch".

The Conservatives' private polling shows that while people think the party has changed since last year's general election defeat, people are still hazy over what the party stands for.

Mr Duncan Smith is determined to show that the drive, launched at the Tories' spring conference in Harrogate in March, is not a "five-minute wonder". He will make a speech on his new direction for the party next week.

Tory officials said Mr Willetts' decision to work through last night was aimed at "bringing the campaign to life". One added: "We are deadly serious about connecting with the groups at the bottom of society. We are invading Labour's traditional territory."

Mr Willetts said: "It is time to get a handle on the real situations that are defining people's lives and to find out why public services are failing many of our most vulnerable citizens. The only way to start facing these realities is by experiencing what a modern 24-hour city is like."

The Tory frontbencher began by meeting Simon Armson, the Samaritans' chief executive. He then joined refugee students at an English class at Hackney Community College. After meeting people sleeping rough near Victoria rail station, he visited the Thames Reach Bondway Rough Sleepers Hostel in Vauxhall.

In the early hours of this morning, Mr Willetts visited the Nile Centre, a 24-hour crisis sanctuary for African and Caribbean people with mental health problems, met nightshift workers at Tesco in Ken-sington and went on a police patrol in Tower Hamlets. He was expected to end his all-night shift by helping postal workers sort mail between 6am and 7am.