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Leigh vs Portillo

On the Today programme this morning Edward Leigh and Michael Portillo unsurprisingly offered diametrically opposed perspectives on the direction the Party should be going in. Commenting on Brown's bounce Leigh said:

"The way that we fight back is to show that we are not weak, we are not driven by PR, we are a party of principle. There's only one way they can go, which is the traditional Conservative way, the right policies, the progressive policies of successful countries around the world of low taxation, deregulation, strong immigration controls, strong defence and building on the social responsibility theme of David Cameron. The fact is that traditional policies of all successful Conservative governments since the Second World War have all been much the same."

In response Portillo wheeled out the mantra that those policies lost us the last three elections and he urged Cameron to be a martyr for the centre ground cause:

"It is a moment of crisis, or at least a critical moment, in that it is very important that David Cameron should see off the people who want to undermine the strategy to position the Conservative Party on the centre ground. Many people like what David Cameron is doing, but they are not convinced that the party is following him... David Cameron has to take the party to the centre. It is possible it is not do-able, but he should certainly die in the attempt."

Michael Gove denied that the Party was in crisis but agreed that the election would be won "by sticking to the centre ground". He said Brown wasn't underestimated and that his poll lead is a blip similar to that enjoyed by Eden, Callaghan and Major.

Deputy Editor

Cornerstone launches new blog

The Cornerstone Group of 35 Tory MPs has launched a new website. In his introductory post chairman Edward Leigh describes the group:

"We represent traditional Tory themes of nation, family, enterprise and compassion, founded on Judaeo-Christian ethics. We keep the flame burning because we believe that a vigorous discussion about Conservative ideas can be of immense value to our party in the remaining two or three years to the General Election."

He then goes on to talk about the successes of David Cameron's leadership:

"We applaud our leader’s decision to reach out to people who have yet to vote for us, and for him to talk about environmental and poverty issues, where we have undersold ourselves in the past – and to speak up in favour of marriage."

But, embracing 'the politics of and', he also writes that the Conservative Party needs to recognise the burden of taxation and regulation, the growth of political correctness and to explain how we will root out waste and inefficiency, support marriage through the tax and benefit system, reverse the drift of powers to Europe and introduce a fairer system of immigration.

Edward Leigh recently wrote for ConservativeHome and proposed a £44bn tax cuts package that would have taken millions of low-paid people out of the tax system.