Is Ken Clarke about to run?

Westminster is alive with rumours that Ken Clarke is about to run for the Tory leadership.

The party's modernisers - who do not have an obvious standard-bearer - are said to be urging him to stand. Some others are desperate to find a 'Stop Davis' candidate.

Ken Clarke - rejected by MPs in 1997 and by the grassroots in 2001 - was a contemporary of Michael Howard and may be thought to be too old.

Enthusiastic about European integration and controversially involved with British American Tobacco, the general public nonetheless still regard Ken Clarke as their favourite Tory.

Unlike William Hague, Ken hasn't ruled himself out.

Comments

[James Hellyer]

When you look at the seats in the general election the Conservatives lost because of UKIP (for example, Westmorland and Lonsdale where the UKIP vote exceeded the Lib Dem majority), the idea of Clarke as leader begins to look problematic.

While he is no doubt generally popular, he will probably exacerbate the UKIP/Conservative split.

While Clarke is a fine media and Commons performer, I somehow doubt he would reform the party and its policies to help broaden its appeal. I think he'd just offer a different managerial take from Labour - the very technocratic agenda that Lord Saatchi recently decried.

[Jack Stone]

After the 1997 and 2001 elections the Conservative leadership elections were not elections where people voted for a candidate they voted for a candidate that could stop Ken Clarke. I hope this time we won`t have a self-indulgent attempt by Ken to be leader and people vote for a candidate they think can win the next election for the party not just someone who can stop Ken.

[Howard]

Good lord this will become a circus.

Clarke, Davis, Lansley, Rifkind, Cameron, Fox, Ancram, May, Osborne...any other takers?

I suggest Boris Johnson as a unity candidate.

[Jack Stone]

The trouble with dear old Ken is that he as a far higher opinion of his own abilities than most other people tend to have!

[Cllr Francis Lankester]

Ho, Ho, Ho-Ken Clarke who famously voted for the Maastricht Treaty but claimed he had never read it. Ken Clarke who compared ambulance staff to bus drivers.Ken Clarke the Education Secretary who destroyed Conservative support among teachers. Ken Clarke the Health Secretary who destroyed Conservative suport among NHS workers. Ken Clarke whose support for the ERM destroyed a million jobs. Ken Clarke the serial directorship collector who works for British american Tobacco which sells cancer sticks in the 3rd World without restraint and targets children. Clearly a leading contender.