"Ken Clarke has nothing to prove. He has been Education Secretary, Health Secretary, Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer. It is clear that he is uniquely qualified to lead our party. Ken is the candidate best placed to confront Brown and Blair and to restore trust in Conservative economic management. For years the wider electorate has told us that Ken Clarke should be the leader of our party and Prime Minister of our country. We should not ignore them again."
With those words Andrew Lansley, Shadow Health Secretary, has just declared for Ken Clarke. He met members of his constituency association on Friday night and their clear hope, Mr Lansley reported, was that they would be able to choose between David Cameron and Ken Clarke in the final round.
He has personally chosen Mr Clarke because of his popular appeal and his ability to challenge Gordon Brown on the economy. He dismissed today's polls which suggest that David Cameron is best placed to close the poll gap on Labour. More important, he said, is Ken Clarke's long-established record of being a vote-winner. David Cameron and David Davis had both been favourites but were untested compared to Ken Clarke who had "bankable" popularity and experience.
Earlier today, on BBC1's Politics Show, Mr Clarke said that he was the obvious person to support if the Conservative Party wants to appeal to floating voters. At the start of the contest he said that he was four times more popular than his nearest rival for the leadership. His popularity advantage still stands at two-and-a-half to three times, he claimed. KC, too, thinks that a Cameron versus Clarke run-off would make for the best final round. Conservative activists would then be able to choose between himself who has the undoubted experience to be Prime Minister and David Cameron who has the most potential (of the other candiates) to occupy 10 Downing Street. The Lansley-Clarke hope for a Cameron-Clarke run-off seems to be the preference of voters in conservativehome.com's unscientific online poll. At this time of posting 48% would support David Cameron in Tuesday's first round; 25% would support Ken Clarke. Punters at William Hill, however, have put their money on Mr Clarke being the first to be rejected by Tory MPs in Tuesday's ballot.
During the Politics Show interview Mr Clarke was asked about policy. He emphasised his opposition to the Iraq war, his economic credentials and his support for Lords reform. Trying to explain his failure to win many supporters amongst the 2005 intake he (probably unhelpfully for his prospects) suggested that new MPs were more influenced by the newspapers. Longer-serving MPs had seen his skills at first-hand and were more likely to back him.
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