BB FANS

The four men in the race for the leadership of the tory party, are- Ken Clarke, Liam Fox, David Davis and David Cameron.

For you BBfan members who vote tory, who would you like to see become tory leader?

Hopefuls set to face Tory women

Tory MPs will vote next Tuesday
The four Conservative leadership candidates are preparing to be grilled by MPs' wives and other Tory women at a hustings in the House of Commons.

David Cameron, David Davis, Ken Clarke and Liam Fox will have 15 minutes each before the 40-year-old Contact group.

The event takes place shortly after the official noon close of nominations.

Tory MPs vote next Tuesday with the last candidate dropping out. The top two in a second vote, on Thursday, then go to a run-off vote of party members.

With the first round of voting approaching the various candidates are stepping up their efforts to win backing.

Although Mr Cameron is the bookmakers' favourite, Mr Davis is thought to have a big lead among MPs, with 66 backing him.

Close race

Dr Fox's bid was boosted on Wednesday by news that about 15 right-wing Tory MPs could back him.

That would make it too close to call between him and Mr Cameron, who has won over two shadow ministers.


"The Cornerstone group would like to see Mr Clarke thrown out of the balloon" Edward Leigh MP

The Cornerstone Group of right-wing MPs discussed who to support at a meeting on Wednesday evening.

One of the group's leading MPs, Edward Leigh, said: "Twenty-one MPs turned up for the meeting.

"I think the majority of them will vote for Dr Fox, firstly because he appears to accept all the Cornerstone agenda and secondly because they would like to see Mr Clarke thrown out of the balloon."

But another MP from the group, Douglas Carswell, instead said he was backing Mr Cameron.

Drugs questions

Mr Carswell made his decision after watching the four candidates at the first hustings of the contest - attended by right-wing MPs from the 92 Group, the Cornerstone Group and the No Turning Back Group.

The event - with the contenders being questioned separately rather than going head to head - is the first of three similar events ahead of the first round of Tory MPs' votes.


CAMPAIGN TIMETABLE
Wednesday: Hustings in front of right-wing Tory MPs from the 92 Group, No Turning Back Group and Cornerstone Group
Thursday: Nominations close. Hustings for the Contact group of Tory spouses
Monday: Possible hustings for all Tory MPs
Tuesday: First round of voting by MPs
Thursday: Final round of voting by MPs
Early November: Tory members start voting on final two candidates
6 December: Result expected

One MP asked Mr Clarke - the first contender to appear - whether he had ever tried hard drugs.

The reaction against the question from other MPs was apparently so strong that it was not put to other candidates.

But it was most likely aimed at Mr Cameron, who has refused to say whether or not he smoked cannabis at university.

Mr Clarke initially said he did not think it right for candidates to be asked to answer questions of that sort about their private lives.

He then added: "If it is of any interest to you, I haven't taken cocaine."

Be realistic

Later, Mr Cameron was asked only what his policy on drugs would be.

He said he thought it vital to improve education and treatment in the battle against illegal drugs.

Pressed on his earlier support for downgrading cannabis from Class B to Class C, he argued it was important to ensure that drugs policy was "realistic".

But he suggested he might reconsider the move because the cannabis available now was much stronger.

BBC

LEADER CAMPAIGN HOTS UP
The four contenders for the Tory leadership will be David Cameron, Kenneth Clarke, David Davis and Liam Fox, the party has confirmed.

Nominations for the election have closed and MPs will now whittle the candidates down in a series of ballots.

The first ballot will take place on Tuesday. The final two candidates will then be put to the party members, who will have the final say.

The membership ballot will close on December 5, with Michael Howard's successor named on either December 6 or 7.

After his successful party conference speech, the new front runner is young upstart Mr Cameron. He is odds on favourite at 8-11.

But close behind at 2-1 is old favourite and right winger David Davis - he still has the most support from fellow MPs.

Ken Clarke is not doing so well at 11-2 - and there is speculation he might not make it to the final shortlist of two.

That has been made possible by the party's Right voting tactically for outsider Dr Liam Fox, who is not far behind Clarke at 15-2. Skynews

MAGGIE'S BIRTHDAY BASH
Margaret Thatcher is celebrating her 80th birthday with a star-studded bash that the Queen and Tony Blair will be attending.

It lands on the day that nominations for a new Tory leader close.

The reception will be held at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel near London's Hyde Park.

It has emerged that only two of the four contenders for the Tory leadership have been invited - David Davis and Liam Fox.

It was pointed out that Lady Thatcher does not even know David Cameron and that she and Kenneth Clarke had had "their differences".

Meanwhile, scores of well-wishers, many of whom have little in common with her politically, have delivered their greetings to her.

Most of these greetings have been amiable, but a few have been a little acerbic.

A surprise guest at the reception is Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare and his wife Mary. Lady Thatcher has maintained her friendship with the couple despite his conviction for perjury.

The only other living ex-prime minister, Sir John Major, will also be there.

Most members of her former Cabinets will be present. But Lord Heseltine, the man whose challenge to her leadership led to her downfall, has not been invited.

Among the non-political figures attending will be Lord Lloyd-Webber, Sir Tim Rice, Dame Shirley Bassey, June Whitfield, Jeremy Clarkson and Marco Pierre White. Skynews

I wouldn't class myself as tory, liberal democrat or labour. I would like to think that when I vote, I vote for whose policies I agree with as a whole, or maybe if I feel storongly enough about one particular issue. However I would class myself as a generalisation left of centre.

Having heard all 4 of their speeches at the tory conference, I wouldn't like Davis or Fox to win, and i'd bet on Clarke not getting enough mps to back him at the next vote. So that leaves Cameron, hmmm.

Clarke doesn't have a hope in hell of winning the leadership. He is hated by the right wing tories and will be the first out of the contest,imo.
If I was a tory [perish the thought] I would want Mr middle of the road David Cameron to get the job. The other two smarmy gits make my skin crawl

Cameron team fears Mail group is out to dig up dirt



David Cameron's leadership election team fear that Associated Newspapers is out to destroy his campaign and determined to dig up dirt on him, his wider family and his supporters, mainly concerning allegations of cocaine taking.

Other campaign teams are predicting that Associated Newspapers, especially the Mail on Sunday, will damage Mr Cameron this weekend. Some appear to be close to abandoning hope of finding another means of preventing Mr Cameron reaching the runoff between two candidates among the membership. The first ballot of MPs is next Tuesday, with the second and final round next Thursday.

The Cameron team is determined not to move beyond the formula in which Mr Cameron says he did some things when he was young that he now regrets. They claim that if they answer one question, they will be faced by another concerning other aspects of his personal life.

The rightwing Tory MP Edward Leigh demanded that Mr Cameron come clean. "He should tell the truth". Mark Pritchard, a supporter of David Davis, said: "There should not be any no-go areas in questioning aspiring future prime ministers."

Supporters of Mr Cameron believe Mr Davis's supporters are behind some of the briefing, but insist they will offer Mr Davis a job if Mr Cameron wins. They are confident that if he gets into the second round, the support among party members would be overwhelming.

Senior figures in the Cameron team believe Liam Fox, the rightwing outsider, could present a greater threat in a membership election. They envisage a train of events in which Ken Clarke comes fourth on Tuesday and Mr Davis underperforms, forcing many MPs to reassess whether Mr Davis remains a credible challenger, or switch to Mr Fox. If Mr Clarke drops out, many of his supporters are expected to switch to Mr Cameron.

Supporters of Mr Fox were claiming yesterday - the day nominations closed - that Mr Davis had "another conference moment" when he spoke to MPs' partners at a hustings yesterday. It was also claimed that Kenneth Clarke, a former chancellor, antagonised some partners by speaking for too long and only allowing time for one question.

The Fox team revealed backing from four more MPs - Owen Paterson, Robert Goodwill, Mark Francois and Angela Watkinson - taking his official total to 20, while Mr Cameron claimed backing from two one-time natural Clarke allies, Robert Key and Jacqui Lait. Caroline Spelman, William Hague, and Andrew Lansley are the main players yet to declare.

Mr Davis revealed declared support from 67 MPs, with James Brokenshire coming out for him; Mr Clarke has the support of 23 MPs, and Dr Fox has 20.mediaguardian

Tory hopefuls face MPs grilling
Liam Fox, Ken Clarke and David Cameron, from left to right, at Conservative Party conference
Fox, Clarke and Cameron all hope to make it to the run-off
The Conservative leadership candidates are preparing for a crucial eve-of-poll grilling from the party's MPs.

David Cameron, Ken Clarke, David Davis and Liam Fox each have a 20-minute slot in which to woo undecided MPs.

Tory MPs vote on Tuesday and Thursday to decide which two will go through to a vote of all Conservative members.

Mr Cameron is the bookies' favourite but Mr Davis has the most declared backers. Mr Clarke and Dr Fox both believe they can make it through.

'Obvious person'

Mr Clarke, the former chancellor, said on Sunday that he had "an excellent chance" of making it to the run-off vote among Conservative members.

He told the BBC he was "the obvious person to pick" to increase the party's "appeal to the floating voter".


RACE ODDS
David Cameron 4/7
David Davis 5/2
Liam Fox 8/1
Ken Clarke 14/1


Mr Davis has the declared support of 66 MPs, Mr Cameron of 34, Mr Clarke of 24 and Dr Fox of 22. About 50 Tory MPs have yet to declare how they will vote in the secret ballot.

If the MPs vote as they have declared Mr Davis would be guaranteed to make it to the run off - leaving the other three to battle for one spot.

At the hustings, organised by the 1922 Committee of backbenchers, each man will have the opportunity to deliver a five-minute address, before fielding questions for 15 minutes.

On Sunday, Mr Cameron again refused to answer questions about whether he had used drugs as a student.

"It is time actually to get on with what really matters in this leadership election campaign," he said.

"Which is to ask which is the candidate best placed to modernise the Conservative Party, to reach out to voters that haven't supported us before, to be an effective opposition, and to win the next election."

Earlier, shadow home secretary Mr Davis insisted that he had not been seeking to exploit Mr Cameron's difficulties.
BBC

Rickitt on list of Tory MP hopefuls

Former Coronation Street hunk Adam Rickitt has made it on to a list of candidates to become a Tory MP, the party has confirmed.

Rickitt, a gay icon, is hoping to become a Member of Parliament at the next general election after Tory officials put him on the list of hopefuls.

He will now have to apply to Tory associations in individual constituencies in the hope of securing a vacant seat to fight the next election. A Conservative Party spokeswoman said: "Adam Rickitt is on our list of candidates."

Blond Rickitt, 27, played Weatherfield's floppy-haired heart-breaker Nick Tilsley. The young star became a gay icon, sharing the soap's first gay kiss with Todd Grimshaw, played by co-star Bruno Langley.

He spent 15 months on the soap before leaving in 1999, but his bid for a career in pop music fell flat.

Rickitt has appeared in gay magazine Attitude. He is currently mountain-climbing in South America and unavailable for comment.

He returned to the Street in July 2002 for a short visit and reprised his role as Nick Tilsley to attend the wedding of his mother Gail Platt to new Street villain Richard Hillman.

While in Weatherfield, hairdresser Maria Sutherland caught his eye and they were soon involved in a passionate relationship.

Privately-educated Rickitt, who attended Kingsmead Prep School on the Wirral, then Sedbergh School in Cumbria, finished his education with four A-Levels and worked as a model before passing his audition for Coronation Street. [url=http://www.dailysnack.co.uk/celebrity_news_article_pa.html?cart=1127473014980439&fSKU=9]dailysnack
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i read that in the paper this morning

had to check it wasn't april the first

Let's hope if he does do it, he's good at it.

Kenneth Clarke today became the first candidate to be eliminated from the Tory leadership race.

The votes cast in the first ballot of MPs were:
David Davis 62
David Cameron 56
Liam Fox 42
Kenneth Clarke 38

The remaining three contenders are due now to go into a second ballot of MPs - to be held on Thursday - to decide which two will go forward to the final ballot of the entire party membership.

David Davis, who had been hoping for 66 or 67 votes, said that there had obviously been some tactical voting but "the highest number of Conservative MPs have selected me as their first choice".

He called on Conservative MPs to give a "clear steer" in the second ballot about the man they wanted to lead the party.

David Cameron said that it was a better result than he had expected and described it as "very pleasing". He would be calling on Mr Clarke and his supporters to support him in the next round.

Mr Davis's loss of support will encourage hopes among the campaign team of fellow right-winger Dr Fox, who said that a lot of votes would be moving around over the next few days. He added: "I am delighted to have polled well above predictions."

For Ken Clarke, it was a humiliating end to his long-standing dream of leading the Conservative Party. It was supposed to be third time lucky for the self-styled "Big Beast" of the contest.

He gave no immediate message of which of the remaining three he would now support, but did say of the defeat at the hands of his fellow MPs: "It sends the message that they are looking for a younger leader." Independent

Tory contenders face crunch vote
David Davis, David Cameron and Liam Fox
The three remaining contenders face the vote in round two
The three contenders left in the Tory leadership race are battling to woo voters ahead of Thursday's crunch vote.

David Cameron is building support among Tory MPs, picking up 11 more backers since Ken Clarke was knocked out.

David Davis, who topped the first round vote on Tuesday, said he was "fighting for every vote" and was confident he would get through to the final run-off.

Liam Fox claimed a "growing appetite" to provide the party membership with a choice between him and Mr Cameron.

'Private life'

In the first ballot of Tory MPs on Tuesday, Mr Clarke was eliminated after getting 38 votes. Mr Davis came top with 62 votes, followed by Mr Cameron on 56 and Dr Fox on 42.

David is fighting for every vote, is confident he will go through to the next round and intends to take the contest to the party membership and win




The top two in Thursday afternoon's vote should go through a six week run-off campaign before a postal ballot of the party's 300,000-strong membership.

Some Tory bosses have been told to make contingency plans for a new leader by Friday if Mr Cameron wins the poll overwhelmingly and the second placed candidate decides to withdraw.

Dr Fox said it was "unthinkable" that members could be "denied their say in the leadership election", while Mr Davis' team said he intended to "take the contest to the party membership and win".

'No pressure'

Dr Fox has insisted he would pursue a fight, suggesting there will be a contest regardless of what Mr Davis does.

Party chairman Francis Maude told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there had been "no pressure" from Central Office on the candidate coming second among MPs to give way.


NEWLY DECLARED FOR CAMERON
Sir Malcolm Rifkind
Adam Holloway
Andrew Lansley
Sir George Young
Michael Jack
John Bercow
David Curry
Charles Hendry
David Heathcoat Amory
Stephen Dorrell
Stewart Jackson

He said he expected a ballot of all 300,000 Conservative members to go ahead as planned.

Mr Cameron's hopes of winning the contest received another boost with a YouGov poll for the Daily Telegraph suggesting that 59% of ordinary party members wanted him to take the helm.

This put him well ahead of Mr Fox on 18% and Mr Davis on 15%.

YouGov interviewed 665 Conservative Party members across the UK online on Tuesday night.

In an eleventh-hour pitch for votes, Mr Davis told the BBC that as Conservative leader he would push for good public services, low taxes and opportunity for youngsters.


NEWLY DECLARED FOR FOX
John Redwood
Nigel Waterson
John Whittingdale
Laurence Robertson
Ann Widdecombe

"That is what I am talking about delivering when I become the next Conservative prime minister," he added.

Mr Cameron told the BBC his priorities as Tory leader would be to make the economy more competitive, to strengthen families and communities and improve the quality of life for everybody.

"People are switched off politics and I want to try and switch them back on by being a voice for optimism, for change and for hope," he said.

And Dr Fox told the BBC as Tory leader he would want to see a Britain "where hard working people get to keep more of their own money, where we encourage enterprise and prosperity."

The two finalists meet on Friday to finalise arrangements for nationwide hustings.

The final result of the party members' ballot is expected on 6 December.

Michael Howard, who has formally resigned as leader, will carry on in a caretaker role until then. BBC

Whilst I can't ever see myself voting Conservative, we do a need a strong opposition, the tories have been pretty much pathetic the last few years and have imploded.

Tony Blair would make a good Tory leader...future career perhaps?

Cameron and Davis top Tory poll

The candidates now go before the wider membership
Leadership contenders David Cameron and David Davis are through to a run-off vote of the Conservative Party's 300,000 members after a ballot of MPs.

Mr Cameron topped the poll, taking 90 of a possible 198 votes, while Mr Davis was second on 57. Rival Liam Fox was eliminated after gaining 51 votes.

Mr Cameron, 39, and Mr Davis, 56, will now enter a six week head-to-head campaign to woo the party grassroots.

The result of the vote of Conservative members is expected on 6 December.

Forecasts

Speaking shortly after the result a smiling Mr Cameron said he wanted to be a "voice for change, optimism and hope".

He wanted to lead a "21st-Century party that's modern" and "understands the hopes and dreams of people".

He was followed shortly after by Mr Davis who told the reporters waiting outside the Commons that he wanted the party to "reach the parts of Britain it hasn't reached before".

He added that Mr Cameron's support had "fallen a little short of their own forecasts" and said the "real battle" was just beginning.

Mr Davis declared: "I intend to fight for my beliefs."

Dr Fox congratulated his rivals but refused to endorse either.

He said he would "listen with great interest" to their policy pronouncements.

'Great interest'

The BBC's political editor, Nick Robinson, said Mr Davis was "masses behind" in the contest, but clearly determined to fight on.


WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
Friday - candidates meet party officials to finalise rules for campaign
October to December - 11 hustings held around UK
4 November - ballots sent out to Conservative members
6 December - final result announced

He added that the contest had already swung one way, so Mr Davis would be hoping that it would swing back again.

In the first ballot of Tory MPs on Tuesday, Mr Davis came top with 62 votes, followed by Mr Cameron on 56 and Dr Fox on 42.

Ex-chancellor Ken Clarke was knocked out with 38 votes.

Caretaker

Mr Cameron, shadow education secretary, had been the bookmakers' favourite in the wake of a well received Conservative Party conference speech earlier this month.

Mr Davis, the shadow home secretary and early favourite for the contest, had seen his campaign lose momentum following a speech to the party's annual conference which some observers judged as disappointing.

Dr Fox, the shadow foreign secretary, had hoped to gain enough defectors from Mr Davis to get through.

The two remaining contenders are due to meet party officials on Friday to discuss arrangements for a nationwide series of hustings. BBC

It’s got to be Cameron for the Conservatives to get the gay vote
20-Oct-2005
PinkNews.co.uk

So the young pretender David Cameron has jumped from virtual non-entity to the winner of the Parliamentary stage of the Conservative leadership contest.

The party membership need to make sure that they pick a winner this time and not repeat the debacle of the Duncan-Smith era.

David Cameron is the leader of the future, picking him will allow the party look young and fresh when compared to the aging Gordon Brown when Tony Blair finally gives him the keys to Number 10.

Young gay professionals are the perfect group of people to support the Conservatives at the next election. They are natural conservatives, they want low taxes, personal freedoms and the ability to shape their own destinies.

It is the bigoted social conservatives (note the small c) that make the Conservatives unattractive when they attempt to portray being gay as being immoral and against ‘the natural order of things’.

David Cameron was just a baby of one when homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales. He has lived his entire life without the stigma of prejudice that blighted previous generations.

It must be admitted, however that David Davis, who Mr Cameron will face in final ballot has in the past demonstrated his gay rights agenda. He famously stood up for gay rights when he intervened in the torturing of a gay pupil by a gang of bullies at his tough inner London school.

Both candidates have their merits and both have promised to include gay rights in their agenda and work towards greater equality.

However, it is time for a change, a young leader who can force the party to engage with modern Britain. Party members should vote for Mr Cameron and urge Mr Davis to support him in a senior position in the shadow cabinet.