Ex-contender: Andrew Lansley

Mr Lansley had wanted to call the party 'Reform Conservatives'

Date of birth: 11 December 1956
Job: Shadow health secretary
Education: Brentwood School; Exeter University
Family: Married second wife in 2001, three daughters from first marriage

On his party's future: "It is not enough simply to have lots of new policies in different areas - school choices, freedom for hospitals and so on...the problem was that the public suspected our motives because they did not understand our vision "

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What the press say: "Photogenic, thoughtful and unthreatening. Some think the shadow health secretary's lower key approach could appeal to voters turned off by negative campaigning...critics admit he is competent but see him as uninspiring," The Guardian.

PROFILE

A senior civil servant in the 1980s, Andrew Lansley became an active Conservative after a spell as private secretary to Norman Tebbit.

In 1990 he was appointed head of the Conservative Research Department, acting as one of the main architects of the party's 1992 General Election victory. He became an MP at the following election.

Mr Lansley was a key ally of William Hague and was responsible for planning the doomed 2001 Tory election campaign.

After Mr Hague's resignation, he backed Ken Clarke's leadership challenge despite his own Euroscepticism and argued the party needed to return to the centre ground.

He was one of the few Conservative MPs to oppose the Iraq war.

He has consistently argued that female voters are key to the Conservatives' electoral recovery.

And he has been a leading voice in favour of modernisation, arguing for a more considered, less confrontational brand of politics that is more in touch with voters' real life priorities.

But his proposal to change the name of the party to "Reform Conservatives", to reflect the way it has changed, fell on deaf ears.