The pressure on Mr Michael Portillo increased yesterday after the right-wing Conservative, Mr David Davis, withdrew from the party leadership contest. He left predicting that most of his supporters would switch to Mr Iain Duncan Smith.
In a further sign that the Tory contest is still too close to call, the former chancellor, Mr Kenneth Clarke, declared he was "on course to come second" in the final ballot of MPs. He predicted that he would pick up a significant number of Davis votes and those of Mr Michael Ancram who was eliminated from the race on Thursday.
As Mr Davis pulled out of the contest he conceded he did not have enough support among MPs to chase the leading pack of Portillo-Duncan Smith-Clarke. Meanwhile Mr Portillo mounted a robust campaign to encourage Davis and Ancram supporters to row behind him as the "unity" candidate.
Anxious that Mr Ancram's 17 supporters might go to Mr Clarke and Mr Davis's 18 to his second-placed rival, squeezing his already narrow lead in the contest, Mr Portillo appealed to MPs to consider who best would lead the party to victory.
"The question is, will I be able to bring right and left together? Would I be able to bring [together] those who are in favour of having our own currency and those who are not ..."
"I believe I would and unity is the necessity for our party to win now. And we all need to focus on now is how the Conservative Party can be a winning party by the time of the next election and I believe I can do it," Mr Portillo said.
But as he talked of the future, Mr Duncan Smith, fired off a reminder that the race was not over yet. "There's another round to go," he declared. "We can't take anything for granted. We have to fight to persuade colleagues that I'm the only one they should choose."
As the three candidates prepared to go forward to the second round next week, Mr Clarke insisted: "I will get a goodly number of David Davis's votes. I will get more, I think you will find, of Michael Ancram's votes and I am perfectly confident that I shall be in the first two."
PA adds: Two major bookmakers last night made Mr Duncan Smith the new favourite. Ladbrokes and Coral made him the leading contender but William Hill has made Mr Clarke the favourite in the race.