JUST eight days before the first round of voting begins in the Tory leadership campaign the former deputy prime minister, Mr Michael Heseltine, and another former minister, Sir Norman Fowler, have formally endorsed Mr Kenneth Clarke, predicting that he would unite the party.
Their public support for Mr Clarke came against the backdrop of a bitter war of words yesterday between a number of the leadership contenders. With the right wing candidates, Mr Peter Lilley and Mr John Redwood, on one side and Mr Clarke, former chancellor of the exchequer, and Mr William Hague, former Welsh Secretary, on the other, the prospects for a clean contest in the final days are not high.
As Mr Heseltine eulogised Mr Clarke's "experience, popular support and capacity to unite the party", Sir Norman said he was backing the "unflappable" Mr Clarke for his "undoubted appeal to the middle ground.
Meanwhile, both Mr Lilley and Mr Redwood played down suggestions that their supporters were discussing with the former home secretary, Mr Michael Howard, the possibility of combining forces.
Rejecting the proposal outright, Mr Lilley said he would, however, welcome any supporters who wanted to shorten the process of the election ballot "by coming straight to me".
Addressing a rally of party activists in London, Mr Lilley told his supporters that while Labour looked impregnable he believed Mr Blair would eventually resort to "bossing people around" and that the voters would grow "tired and resentful" of his tactics.
Formal nominations for the leadership contest open next Thursday, and the first round of voting will begin on Tuesday, June 10th.
As the candidates step up their campaigns this week Lady Thatcher, who lost the leadership to Mr John Major in 1990, warned the Tories that with Labour's impressive majority in the House of Commons they could not expect to elect a future prime minister.
"They ought to look for a leader who can beat the party into some sort of shape to be a credible opposition. Whether Ken Clarke is that person I don't know. You want someone who can stand up to Mr Blair," she said.
"You want someone who is exactly like Blair, because he is going to have to do the same sort of job with the remainder of the Tory party as Tony Blair did to reshape the Labour Party to win this incredible victory a month ago," Lady Thatcher said.