Tory leader Mr Iain Duncan Smith was warned last night that he was in danger of provoking a challenge to his leadership of the Tory party after his aides launched a series of vitriolic attacks on Mr Michael Portillo.
Conservative backbenchers critical of Mr Duncan Smith were talking openly of a leadership challenge "sooner rather than later" as the crisis engulfing the party threatened to degenerate into all out civil war.
Allies of Mr Portillo were stung by a series of comments in the Sunday papers from unnamed supporters of Mr Duncan Smith describing the former shadow chancellor as "insane", "a cancer" and "self-indulgent to the point of madness".
Mr Portillo incurred the fury of the leadership with an outspoken attack on Mr Duncan Smith, accusing him of surrounding himself with "yes men" and provoking a crisis by sacking the party's "modernising" chief executive, Mr Mark MacGregor.
However Mr John Bercow, another leading "moderniser" said that it was "inappropriate and unacceptable" for the leader's aides to use such language about a fellow Conservative.
"It is not helpful when an adviser to the leader of the party is quoted in the Mail on Sunday as saying 'Iain's view is that he is going to give the bastards' - for which read Michael Portillo and friends - 'a good beating'," he told BBC1's Breakfast with Frost.
"That isn't serious language. It cannot be credible." He added: "I would have thought in these circumstances, where Iain is going through an incredibly difficult time and facing continuing criticism of his leadership, I would have thought it would be a good idea to be thoughtful, to be reflective, to be conciliatory, to be magnanimous.
"To denounce senior members of the party in this way just fans the flames." Mr Bercow, who resigned from the shadow cabinet over Mr Duncan Smith's opposition to gay adoptions, said that there was now a real prospect of a leadership challenge. It is certainly possible. I think it could happen sooner rather than later. There is clearly grave disquiet," he said.
Even before the latest flare-up there were reports that MPs opposed to Mr Duncan Smith were going to start this week collecting the 25 signatures needed to trigger a contest.
Mr Francis Maude, who ran Mr Portillo's leadership election campaign in 2001, refused to be drawn on the prospect of a challenge, but warned that hostile briefings by unnamed party sources were damaging the whole party.
"All of this briefing needs to stop straightaway. I think it is very destructive, very corrosive," he told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend. "The Conservative Party needs to lie down in a darkened room for a period and gather itself together." Another senior Tory backbencher, Mr Derek Conway, a supporter of the shadow deputy prime minister Mr David Davis, warned that Mr Duncan Smith was in danger of signing his own political death warrant. There are lots of answers that will not be shrugged off with a giggle and certainly won't be shrugged off with a bit of bad spinning," hesaid on TV.
"I don't think the leader of the party is in imminent danger of a motion of confidence if they don't handle this carefully and properly they may push events on.
"The leadership of the Tory party is a leasehold job, it's not freehold, and you can't just do what you like and you certainly can't do what you like without explaining to people what is going on. There is a lot of explaining to do."
The Tory high command sought to deter potential challengers with a series of statements from senior MPs - including Ms Ann Widdecombe, Mr Peter Lilley, Mr Brian Mawhinney and Ms Virginia Bottomley - warning against a contest when the country was on the verge of wars.
Shadow health secretary Mr Liam Fox warned that opponents of Mr Duncan Smith were simply playing into the hands of Labour.
Mr Duncan Smith voiced his exasperation in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, vowing to "close down" the feuding between the so-called "modernisers" and "traditionalists" once and for all.
"The conflict isn't between traditionalists and modernisers, but between those determined to face up to today's challenges and those who prefer the politics of division for division's sake," he said.
- (PA)