Tory MP in call over 'core values'

In a 30-page document setting out what amounts to an alternative agenda for the party Michael Ancram will warn the leadership to stop "trashing" its Thatcherite past and denounce the strategy of presenting Mr Cameron as the "heir to Blair".

While he applauds some of his leader's policies and the proposals emerging from Tory policy review groups, Mr Ancram's comments are likely to be seen as an attack on Mr Cameron's drive to move the Conservatives into the political centre ground.

They threaten to provide a rallying point for Tory traditionalists unsettled by Mr Cameron's approach, and will be all the more potent because of Mr Ancram's ultra-loyal record in three decades as an MP.

In extracts from the document published in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Ancram called on Mr Cameron to show voters that the Tories have not lost the values and principles which make up their "timeless" soul.

While praising some of the proposals of the policy groups, he added: "However good they are they will not of themselves alter the current public perception of the Conservative Party as lacking an overall sense of vision and direction and a clear projection of what it stands for.

"It is vital that these proposals are presented within a framework of the principles and beliefs which in every generation, however differently articulated, have formed the solid and unalterable foundations of Conservatism which have historically been the key to our electoral success.

"David Cameron has successfully revived interest in the Conservative Party brand. Now he must begin to unveil the party's soul based on those core values, principles and beliefs that form the timeless make-up of that Conservative soul."

Former party chairman Mr Ancram stood unsuccessfully as a candidate of the right in the 2001 leadership election to find a successor to William Hague, going on to serve as deputy leader to Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard. He stepped down from the front bench following Mr Cameron's election as leader.

His new document made clear his continued commitment to traditionalist priorities like tax-cutting and opposition to European federalism.