Britain's opposition Conservative leader Mr Iain Duncan Smith staged a desperate bid to save his job today and said he would not let bullies in his party force him out with their personal ambition and bitterness.
Mr Duncan Smith, who has led the Tories for the past two years since they suffered a second battering election defeat by Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party in 2001, insisted he would lead his party into the next election, and would win it.
"The simple message is this: I earned the right to lead this party to the next election. The party membership voted, and they voted overwhelmingly," he told BBC television.
He said Conservatives were being "frightened and bullied" by a small number of his critics "whose personal ambition... personal anger and bitterness" was pushing the party towards a "divisive leadership process which would rip it apart."
"The party has reached a fork in the road. We have to decide whether we are going to plunge ourselves into internecine warfare...or we can gather our strength...to go after this government at a time when they are weakest," he said.
Mr Duncan Smith has struggled for several months - and so far failed - to head off mounting criticism of his leadership and a growing number of calls for him to step down because of his failure to close the gap in the polls with Blair's Labour Party.
One senior Conservative official said this weekend could be crucial for Duncan Smith's survival hopes as members of parliament return to their constituencies to take soundings.
"If enough of them are told it's time for change then things will come to a head very quickly," the official said. "But it's not a foregone conclusion. It was the rank-and-file who voted Duncan Smith in."