Widdecombe warns Howard

Tory leader-in-waiting told he must broaden his vision as constituencies call for instant 'coronation'

Michael Howard has been warned by the woman who destroyed his previous bid to become leader of the Conservative Party that his own "juggernaut" behaviour could be his undoing.

He has been urged to "broaden" his vision so that the Conservatives are seen to be promising a "pleasanter" world, not just one in which offenders are dealt with.

He has also been told that he could have made a better start if he had launched his leadership bid from a council estate rather than from the Saatchi Gallery on the South Bank next to the London Eye.

The comments from the former Home Office minister Ann Widdecombe - author of the celebrated phrase that there is "something of the night" about Mr Howard - highlight the unease felt by many Tory MPs as the party's leadership crisis draws to a conclusion.

It is now virtually certain that Mr Howard will be the sole candidate for the Tory leadership when nominations close on Thursday, making him the first party leader since Alec Douglas-Home, 40 years ago, to emerge without a contested election.

His emergence as the unchallenged successor to Iain Duncan Smith has come as an immense relief to most Tories, after weeks of demoralising intrigue and infighting.

Mr Howard has promised to lead "from the centre", using "Trust the People" as his catchphrase, but some Tory MPs are nervous about public memories of Mr Howard as a hard-line, right-wing minister, who introduced the poll tax and whose best-known saying was "prison works".

Writing for The Independent on Sunday, Miss Widdecombe praises Mr Howard as an "intellectually formidable" thinker and for his "sheer bloody-minded determination". But she warns: "It is vital he broadens that agenda and vision now" and champions the cause of making communities "pleasanter", as well as punishing offenders.

"I wish his declaration of candidature had been on a council estate rather than in a posh art gallery. I am quite happy to take him to the Arden Estate. It ain't far from Westminster, after all," she writes.

She also warns: "He will have to listen and to win over. It is vital that he surrounds himself with loyal friends who are more than capable of standing up to his juggernaut approach as well as doing what he has promised and forming a broadly based Shadow Cabinet."

Mr Howard's campaign managers say that they are being urged by party members in the constituencies to cancel the formality of a membership ballot, because of the time and expense involved. They are said to want Mr Howard to take office immediately after the nominations close.

The sense that years of bitter Tory infighting may be abating was strengthened on Friday night, when Mr Howard's leadership qualities were warmly praised by his lifelong friend and rival, Ken Clarke.

Speaking at a dinner for Buckingham Conservatives, Mr Clarke described the Tory party as a "coalition" which had to be led from the "centre right".

"It was every inch the speech of someone who wanted to support Michael Howard and to recover the fortunes of the Conservative Party," Buckingham's MP, John Bercow, said yesterday.