Duncan Smith should be given '100% support'

Instead he called on the Conservatives' big-hitting senior MPs like Kenneth Clarke and Michael Portillo to "take the opportunity" to be more involved in policy formulation.

Mr Hague argued that Mr Duncan Smith was "pursuing the right policies" and was "a man of clear convictions and integrity" who should command 100% support from Conservative members.

They should shut up, not put up, and support the ... elected leader of the party William Hague

But as he called for the party faithful to rally round their leader, former shadow minister John Bercow attacked Tory plans to cut tax as having "no political merit".

Mr Hague said he was "extremely happy" with the party's general direction and the way it was trying to give greater choice to "vulnerable people" in education, health and local enforcement of law and order.

He urged his colleagues to have "a steady aim and cool nerve" and not to be distracted by criticism.

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'Stop sniping'

He argued that unlike 1997 when people were "a bit starry-eyed about Labour", people could now see "that the government is letting them down on public services".

"The opportunity is there and they are trying to take it - let's cheer the leadership on rather than snipe at them," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Officials say opponents of Mr Duncan Smith are trying to oust him

Asked what party members should do about Mr Duncan Smith, Mr Hague, who stepped down after the Conservatives election defeat in 2001, insisted: "I think they should support him 100%.

"We had a leadership election two years ago. The members voted by a big majority for Iain Duncan Smith. I think he is pursuing the right policies.

"I think he is a man of clear convictions and integrity ... I remember him trying to persuade me not to resign. He was not exactly manoeuvring for the job himself.

"He stood out of a sense of duty and again I applaud that and these are good qualities in public life and we should support those qualities when they are available to us."

Staying put

Asked what should be done about Mr Duncan Smith's critics, Mr Hague stressed: "They should shut up, not put up, and support the ... elected leader of the party.

However strong the voters' desire to protest, they do not currently regard the Conservative Party as a viable vehicle for their protest Stephen Dorrell

"I think actually you will find this week in Blackpool that is what the vast majority of the people attending from the constituencies and the MPs want to do, so we mustn't exaggerate the problem."

Mr Hague, who has ruled himself out of a front bench position in this Parliament, said Mr Duncan Smith had done more to involve the rest of the Parliamentary party in policy formulation "than anybody for a very long time, even myself, I will confess."

Meanwhile, Mr Bercow, who quit from the frontbench in November last year, argued that it was "nonsense on stilts" to say opinion polls show the Tories were picking up voters' support.

'Prissy' Tories?

Recent opinion polls had delivered a damning verdict on how people saw the party, he said.

He said there was "no political merit" in Tories talking generally about being a lower tax government and he questioned their flagship promise to scrap tuition fees.

Mr Bercow applauded Conservative proposals to offer state scholarships as part of their education policy and urged them to go further on such plans.

Mr Bercow said there had been a much-justified perception that the Tories were rural, provincial and "somewhat prissy".

Nick Gibb, former shadow treasury spokesman, said: "I don't believe in any of our policy announcements we talk about how to improve the under-lying problems in both education and in health."

Former cabinet minister Stephen Dorrell said the "obvious and urgent need" for Conservatives to rebuild support in urban areas had been reinforced by the Brent East result.

"We cannot expect to be regarded as a national party ready for government, the voice of protest and the voice of hope, the voice truly of One Nation if we are visibly cut off as a party from the great cities of our country," he said.