The mud was already flying within the Conservative Party last night as rival camps backed possible successors to Michael Howard in the event of a humiliating Tory defeat.
Mr Howard spent the last day of the campaign in a hectic round of canvassing in key Tory target seats, travelling across the country by helicopter. Last night, he returned to his Folkestone constituency hopeful that he will be able to prove the polls wrong by winning key marginals from Labour.
Tory campaigners said they were satisfied they had won the campaign, but senior Conservatives privately criticised Mr Howard for allowing the Tory campaign to be focused too much on himself.
"He is a very rigid lawyer and he reminds people of the past every time he appears on the TV," said a former Tory minister.
"I don't think we realised the extent to which Michael's personality and the decision to call Blair a liar produced a toxic mixture and an adverse reaction."
Tory grandees including Ken Clarke have made it clear to Mr Howard that he should stay on to oversee the likely post mortem, and the hand-over to a younger leader of the Conservative party. But the rival camps were already vying for position. A campaign to stop either George Osborne or David Cameron becoming the favourites for the leadership after Mr Howard was already underway.
A senior Conservative said: "Osborne is already being called Vicky Pollard (the character from the comedy series Little Britain) for his 'yes, no, but' launch of our business manifesto. If that is the best we can do, we've had it."
Mr Cameron was also privately being rubbished by rival camps who fear that next week, the campaign for the Tory leadership will unofficially get under way and Mr Osborne and Mr Cameron will prove unstoppable as the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown of their generation in the Tory party.
"They have both been given an unprecedented privilege of a high profile in the election campaign, they have been fed on Royal jelly, and then their supporters have dissed Michael by saying they were uncomfortable with the immigration strategy. It is terrible disloyalty," said the source.
Liam Fox, who has a speech booked for Politea next week, the right-leaning think tank, denied he is launching his leadership bid, but he is regarded as a key challenger from the right.
David Davis, who will be a favourite for the leadership, if he sees off the Liberal Democrats in his Yorkshire seat, has ordered his supporters to make no move over the weekend that could open him to accusations of disloyalty to Mr Howard.
However, there is anger at Mr Fox for suggesting that Mr Davis's position was problematic while Theresa May, another front-bencher threatened by the Liberal Democrats, would survive.
In spite of the pressure on Mr Howard to stay for a decent period to avoid the chaos that was caused when John Major suddenly quit the leadership, some camps are adamant that Mr Howard must go before a European referendum campaign.
The referendum could be held early in 2006 and some Tory camps believe a successful 'no' campaign could provide a perfect launch pad for a new leader, which Mr Howard should not keep for himself.
Lynton Crosby, the Australian campaign strategist who was brought in for the Tory campaign, was being made the fall-guy for the Conservative election failure by reinforcing the Tories 'nasty' image with a hard-hitting campaign.
One senior Tory said: "The strategy was pretty awful. He has brought discipline to the Tory headquarters, but what worked in Australia, didn't work here. The Australians may like the abuse, but it put people off here."
Mr Crosby simplified the Tory appeal into five key messages, including 'cleaner hospitals' and 'controlled immigration'. But the 'dog whistle' strategy introduced by Mr Crosby to appeal to core Tory voters who could 'hear' the message, particularly on immigration, was judged to have backfired.
Gordon Brown at Labour's final campaign press conference may have put his finger on a more damaging factor in the Tory campaign, however. He said that every time Labour attacked the Tory flagship policies, they folded.
There was some truth in this boast. The Tories were forced on the defensive over their plans for giving NHS patients half the price of an operation in a private clinic. It allowed Labour to claim disingenuously that the Tories were destroying the NHS by introducing charges for treatment.
The Tories also upset some pensioners with their offer of up to £500 off the council tax when they discovered in the small print it was limited to those aged 65, excluding women who retired at 60.
The Tories also encountered flak after Mr Howard announced a timetable for action in the first days of a Tory government, and later admitted that promised tax cuts would not be introduced until 2006.
- INDEPENDENT
<EM>Conservatives:</EM> Mud flies already within Tory ranks
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