Britain: Outgoing Conservative leader Michael Howard has advanced his plan to change his party's rules and give MPs the final say in the election of his successor in the autumn.
Full details are expected today of the proposed new electoral process approved by the Conservative Party board on Monday and shown to the shadow cabinet and Tory MPs yesterday.
It is understood any MP with the support of at least 10 per cent of the parliamentary party at Westminster would be proposed as a candidate to the party's national convention. The convention, including local party chairmen and other party figures, would then rank the candidates in order of popularity, before a final decision by the MPs.
However, with months of possibly acrimonious debate ahead, Iain Duncan Smith - the man deposed in favour of Mr Howard, and the only Conservative leader ever elected by the party's rank-and-file - yesterday urged party members not to be "cowed by the parliamentary party into abdicating their powers".
Calling for "a vigorous debate" ahead of any rule changes, Mr Duncan Smith highlighted the fact that any decision taken exclusively by the party's MPs would be unrepresentative of large parts of Britain.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Duncan Smith said the male-dominated parliamentary party was composed overwhelmingly of lawyers, bankers and career politicians whose constituencies were largely in the shires and suburbs of England. And he warned: "If Conservative MPs have the final say, Scotland will have one vote in the election, Wales will have three. England will have 97 per cent of the electorate. Even more importantly, none of the electors (MPs) will represent Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester or Birmingham."
In his article, Mr Duncan Smith took "on the chin" the first argument advanced against the party's current rules - namely that they elected him. However, he observed that other leaders elected by MPs alone - Margaret Thatcher, John Major and William Hague - had each suffered attacks from those who first installed them.
On the second argument, Mr Duncan Smith also accepted that the party's grassroot members might be "unrepresentative" insofar as any organisation made up of people interested in politics would be unrepresentative. However, he argued that the voluntary party might prove more representative than the MPs.
"It is rooted in every walk of life, comprising soldiers, doctors, teachers, business people, full-time and working mothers, churchgoers and students," he wrote. "They are certainly older than the average age - but so are the people who vote. The party has more women than men, just like British society. The male-dominated parliamentary party is composed overwhelmingly of lawyers, bankers and career politicians."
Asserting that he would abide by whatever decision was finally reached, Mr Duncan Smith said he was concerned that the debate about leadership would be seen in the narrowest terms when "it should be part of a bigger debate about the direction of the party".
Meanwhile, the heavily tipped shadow home secretary David Davis propelled himself to the forefront of the leadership campaign as he signalled his intention to make the government's proposals for ID cards the first Commons battleground of Labour's third term.
Others considering entering the Tory leadership race are thought to include former chancellor Kenneth Clarke, John Redwood, Tim Yeo, Malcolm Rifkind, Liam Fox, David Cameron, Andrew Lansley and Michael Ancram.