Britain: The leadership of Britain's Conservative Party was warned last night that its show of strength against MPs suspected of plotting against Mr Iain Duncan Smith could backfire, writes Frank Millar in London.
The embattled Tory leader survived Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons yesterday and a meeting of the influential backbench 1922 Committee last night without fresh public embarrassment as the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, Sir Philip Mawer, began his formal investigation into Mr Duncan Smith's employment of his wife Betsy as a secretary on the parliamentary payroll.
In what had promised to be a major confrontation with Mr Tony Blair just a week after he accused the prime minister of lying about his role in the outing of Dr David Kelly, Mr Duncan Smith confined himself to attacks on the government over pensions policy and rising council taxes.
And against, and almost certainly in defiance of, media expectations, the Tory backbenchers dispatched their routine business in just under five minutes at their meeting last night.
However well-placed party sources said it was too early to know whether Sir Philip's inquiry - prompted by a complaint by investigative journalist Mr Michael Crick, whose contract with the BBC has been suspended by mutual agreement while he pursues his quasi political role - would ensure a respite form the threatened "no confidence" move by 25 Conservative MPs.
At the same time a senior MP sometimes critical of the leadership, Mr Derek Conway, advised the party's chief whip, Mr David Maclean, to "cool down" his public confrontation with MPs suspected of trying to undermine last week's Blackpool conference.
Mr Maclean yesterday called in a number of the suspected plotters for what he had described as "career development interviews", following hints that de-selection might result from disloyalty to the leader.
Describing the 1922 meetings as quite "stuffy" affairs however, Mr Conway said last night that nothing should be read into the brevity of the 1922 meeting, noting that "far more was likely to be going on in the corners" of the House of Commons. And while any MP found to be taking pleasure from Mr Duncan Smith's personal embarrassment should be "ostracised", Mr Conway said Mr Duncan Smith needed to be careful not to behave as if he was the only man of principle in the party.