Senior Conservatives yesterday continued to position themselves around potential candidates in the leadership race as Mr Michael Portillo remained the only figure to formally launch his campaign.
Bookmakers William Hill have put former chancellor Mr Kenneth Clarke's chances of succeeding Mr William Hague at 4/1, even though he has said he will not announce his intentions for at least a week. The clear favourite is the shadow chancellor who is on 4/9 ahead of the right-winger, shadow defence secretary, Mr Iain Duncan-Smith, on 11/4.
Declaring his preference for Mr Clarke, the pro-European Tory peer, Lord Brittan, said he hoped the former chancellor would enter the leadership race because "he is the most talented, most experienced and the most popular person in the Conservative Party.
"Kenneth Clarke is the person the Labour Party fear the most because he is not afraid of taking them on issues like education and health," Lord Brittan told BBC R4's World at One programme.
And in a statement released by the Conservative Group for Europe, led by Lord Brittan, its members said the leadership contest offered the party a real chance for change, but only if one of the two candidates put forward for selection was associated with a pro-European agenda. "The Conservative Party in the country should be given a real choice when it comes to vote, under the newly-instituted procedures, for the next leader of the party," the statement said.
One of the potential candidates in the leadership race, the shadow home secretary, Ms Ann Widdecombe, will announce on Monday whether she will put her name forward. But few senior Tory MPs believe she will be able to secure enough support to stand against the frontrunner, Mr Portillo, or any other candidate.
Yesterday, the former Conservative health secretary, Mr Stephen Dorrell, thought to have been a supporter of Mr Clarke, unexpectedly declared his support for Mr Portillo. In an interview with the London Times, Mr Dorrell said: "Michael is the change candidate. He is absolutely under no illusion about the gravity of our defeat. It was much worse than 1997."
Meanwhile, speculation that the British government will introduce a Bill to ban hunting with dogs in next week's Queen's speech intensified after anti-hunting campaigners suggested Downing Street had told them a "middle way" compromise to regulate hunting was "dead". The reports came as a MORI poll for the Economist showed 57 per cent of voters supported a ban, while 31 per cent were opposed.
The results of the specially-commissioned survey, in which 1,010 people were interviewed throughout Britain last week, shows 80 per cent of those who describe themselves as "New Labour" want the traditional country sport to be outlawed.
MORI chairman, Prof Robert Worcester said: "At this election, while Labour won by another landslide, the nation suffered from apathy among heartland voters and especially young people.
"Labour promised a free vote on the banning of hunting with dogs, and previous research has shown public concern that the last Labour government has left the people who supported it feeling that they have not delivered on their promises.
"There will not be such a long honeymoon after this election, and the public will be expecting action on this and other Labour election promises.
"This analysis has shown that banning fox hunting is not so much a class issue as a political issue, despite the efforts of opponents of fox hunting trying to position it as to do with class divisions."