The Conservative leadership contenders were reaching out to ethnic voters yesterday as the acting chairman of the party, Mr David Prior, insisted the campaign should concentrate on issues, not personalities.
After a turbulent week, which culminated in the expulsion from the party of a member of Mr Iain Duncan Smith's campaign team in Wales, he and Mr Kenneth Clarke addressed Asian Conservatives in London and told them they were welcome within the party.
The event was arranged before Mr Edgar Griffin was expelled following the revelation of his links with the British National Party and his comments on asylum-seekers. Both contenders said they wanted to concentrate on issues and said in-fighting among senior Tories marred last week's campaigning.
Earlier, Mr Prior had criticised both camps for "straying" from the real issues. He told the Financial Times that discussion of the issues should continue but "the argument about the past and about personalities should never have started and should cease". As some Tory peers questioned whether Mr Duncan Smith would deliver on his pledge to expel extremists following the Griffin affair and reports suggested that party leaders had failed two years ago to remove BNP infiltrators, Mr Duncan Smith declared he was "by instinct a One Nation Tory".
Writing in the London Times, he said he welcomed diverse cultures and lifestyles into the party: "Under my leadership, we will be open to everyone, whatever their colour, background, class or lifestyle. British Asians already share our values and outlook, as their commitment to family life indicates; British blacks, too, must be made to feel at home in the Tory family." He said infiltration by the BNP was a problem for all political organisations, and their supporters were often found in Labour-held seats or voted Labour.
Mr Duncan Smith's comments were greeted with scepticism by Tory peer Lord Taylor of Warwick, who said it would take more than a "bland newspaper article" to convince blacks and Asians that they were welcome in the Conservative Party. "Whoever becomes the next Conservative leader must destroy racism within the party, otherwise racism will destroy the party," Lord Warwick said.