CONSERVATIVE MPs will choose from among five former cabinet ministers when voting for the party leadership opens next Tuesday. Nominations closed at noon yesterday with Mr Kenneth Clarke, Mr Michael Howard, Mr Peter Lilley, Mr John Redwood and Mr William Hague in the running.
Mr Clarke, boosted by the last minute withdrawal of Mr Stephen Dorrell, said he had kept his campaign deliberately low key, declaring: "It's not stage fright on my part. But it is unwise for the candidates to put out different views of the party when we have to unite it pretty briskly."
But there was little sign of unity last night as Mr Redwood raised the temperature in the party's battle over Europe, insisting he would not tolerate shadow cabinet dissent over his outright opposition to membership of a single European currency.
He maintained that the party could end its European feuding only by declaring that it would never enter monetary union: "The only way to end the Conservative civil war is to settle which side has won.
Mr Clarke, meanwhile, claimed party splits and sleaze were responsible for Labour's election victory. He told the Spectator magazine that it was "the interminable internal debate and sleaze" which rendered the party unattractive to voters.
If current forecasts are correct, three of the four centre right candidates will have to decide on Tuesday night how to stop Mr Clarke, the party's most pro European heavyweight, from gaining an unstoppable momentum as MPs prepare for the second ballot scheduled for Tuesday week, June 17th.
Despite Mr Howard's assertion that the race is between him and Mr Clarke, the former chancellor's supporters expect to face Mr Hague, the former Welsh secretary, in the final round of voting.
To win outright on the first ballot, a candidate needs to attract half the votes of the 164 MPs plug 15 per cent. In subsequent ballots a simple overall majority will be enough. If no victor emerges from the second ballot, a third vote will take place on June 19th, with a final ballot scheduled for June 24th.