BRITAIN: Michael Howard has urged the Conservatives to unite behind his successor as he bid an emotional farewell to the party.
The outgoing Tory leader urged the party to elect his heir without "backbiting and bitterness" and then win back the trust and respect of the British people.
In his last speech to a party conference, Mr Howard said the Conservatives faced a battle if they were to return to power. He warned delegates no party had a "God-given right to govern".
He said the party had to change and acknowledged he had to step down because he had failed to deliver.
But he said the party must hold true to Conservative values. And referring to frontbencher Theresa May's famous warning, he said the Tories never had been "a nasty party".
Mr Howard was speaking at the end of a conference which has seen all of the leadership rivals set out their stalls to succeed him.
He studiously refused to give his backing to any of the contenders, saying the man he wanted to be opposition leader was Labour's Gordon Brown.
He told the Blackpool conference the party was bigger than any one person or any one leader.
"Let's show we can elect a new leader without bitterness and backbiting," he said.
"And then let's unite behind that new leader, not just for a year or two, but for a whole parliament, even when the going gets tough. Unity and discipline are essential. And I promise you this: whoever you choose to succeed me I shall support to the utmost of my ability. And I expect each and every one of you to do the same." Immediately after his speech, Mr Howard formally announced his resignation.
In a letter to the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, he said he was standing down but would stay on until his successor is appointed.
The move fires the official starting gun on the leadership contest. The party will now choose its man, with the result announced in early December.
Mr Howard said the party had made progress at the last election, but had not even come close to winning. That was why he was quitting.
"If you screw up, you risk losing your job," he said.
Mr Howard said his successor had one clear and simple task: "To regain for our party the trust and respect of the British people." But he said that would take a lot of hard work.
"We Conservatives changed Britain and we changed it for the better," he said.
"But no party - however much it has achieved in the past - is entitled to power in the future. No party has a God-given right to govern. There is no natural party of government. The right to govern is a privilege we have to earn." He said the party must change and not be obsessed with talking about itself.
He said it must talk about what matters to modern Britain.
But echoing the speeches of David Davis and Liam Fox, he said the party must stick to its timeless principles.
Mr Howard also attacked the obsession with individual rights that was at the heart of the breakdown of respect in Britain.
And he renewed his focus on immigration. He said it was about protecting the country not "shoring up some core vote".
The speech was received with affection by a packed hall with all five leadership rivals watching.
Mr Davis's lacklustre speech yesterday proved the main talking point of the week. But today he brushed aside criticism, saying he was still the front-runner, despite one bookmaker making David Cameron favourite.
The shadow home secretary acknowledged the reception for his speech had been damaging. But he said he was still the man to beat and it was his ideas, not his speaking skills, that mattered.
"They were not the sort of headlines I would have chosen this morning," he said. "One of the marks or tests of leadership, frankly, is going through the odd difficult day."