The TORY Leader, Mr William Hague, tried to put the "embarrassing" row over the House of Lords behind him yesterday as Tory peers continued to criticise his handling of the crisis.
One senior Tory rebel peer accused Mr Hague's aides of "poisoning the reputation" of sacked opposition chief Lord Cranborne as infighting in the Tory party took a new turn.
"It fills me with some gloom that William Hague's office seem to be intent on poisoning Robert Cranborne's reputation rather than reflecting on how best working relationships with Tory peers in the Lords might be re-established," said the former deputy leader of the party in the Lords, Lord Fraser of Carmyllie.
A former Conservative minister, Lord St John of Fawsley, warned the Tory leadership not to be "stupid" in trying to sabotage the deal negotiated with the government by Lord Cranborne over reform of the House of Lords.
And Baroness Flather, who on Thursday gave up the Conservative whip to sit on the crossbenches, said Mr Hague should have found "other ways of dealing" with Lord Cranborne.
The Tory leader insisted he had been forced to sack Lord Cranborne for "going behind my back" and making a deal with Labour over the abolition of hereditary peers.
Mr Hague said on Talk Radio that, while it had been an "embarrassing couple of days for the party", its members were now in no doubt as to who was leader. He repeated his assertion that he had to sack Lord Cranborne for being "duplicitous".
Lord Cranborne was fired last week as leader of the Tories in the Lords for reaching a secret deal with Tony Blair to retain nearly 100 hereditary peers when the rest lose their voting rights under government plans.
It emerged last night that as well as meeting Mr Blair, Lord Cranborne met the Prime Minister's chief press spokesman, Mr Alastair Campbell. Senior Conservative sources said this meeting - confirmed by Downing Street - "vindicated" Mr Hague's decision to sack Lord Cranborne.
Later a senior aide to Mr Hague denied his camp was trying to blacken Lord Cranborne's name.
"All we are seeing this weekend is the full story emerging," he said, "but news of his meeting with Mr Campbell just shows the extent to which Lord Cranborne was working with Labour to try to bounce the Conservative Party into this agreement."
A Downing Street spokesman said the meeting with Mr Campbell took place on Monday after the deal had been agreed by Lord Cranborne, leader of the Lords Baroness Jay, cross-bencher Lord Weatherill, and finally the Prime Minister.
The announcement of an agreement between government and opposition would clearly be a major news story, the spokesman said, so Mr Campbell was consulted about the mechanics of the operation.
"There was certainly no attempt to bounce Mr Hague into any agreement," the spokesman said.