Britain's Conservative Party ushered in former cabinet minister Mr Michael Howard as its new leader today in an attempt to end years of squabbling and mount a credible challenge to Prime Minister Tony Blair.
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Mr Howard: unopposed in leadership contest
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Mr Michael Spicer, the senior Conservative who chairs the party's committee of parliamentarians, said in a statement Mr Howard had been unopposed and the deadline for nominations had passed.
The Conservative Party has floundered in opposition since 1997 when the Labour Party crushed it in the first of two landslide victories.
In a desperate bid to avoid a third humiliation in the next general election, probably in 2005, Conservative MPs ended Mr Iain Duncan Smith's two-year leadership and scrambled to unite around veteran right-winger Mr Howard.
Mr Howard, an experienced, former government minister whose sharp wit has landed blows on Mr Blair in the past, unveiled his leadership campaign last Thursday, pledging to head for the political centre ground in a bid to wrest votes from Labour.
Analysts say Mr Howard is sure to test Mr Blair more sternly than the hapless Mr Duncan Smith, but it is unlikely he will be able to overturn Labour's dominance before the next election.