Tory MPs 'no confidence in Cameron'

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And the Tory leader made clear he plans to stick to his strategy of moving the party to the political centre ground in the face of calls for a swing to the right from disgruntled backbenchers.

The pressure on Mr Cameron was heightened by a report that up to six of his MPs are calling for a vote of no confidence in his leadership, though aides insisted the Tory leadership were not taking the story seriously.

The Sunday Telegraph reported that at least two - and possibly as many as six - unnamed MPs have written to the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, Sir Michael Spicer, requesting a vote.

The letter-writers were branded "gutless snipers" by Tory frontbencher Andrew Mitchell, who dismissed the story as "flaky".

A vote would automatically be triggered if letters were received from 15% of the parliamentary party - currently 29 MPs - as happened when Iain Duncan Smith was ousted as leader in 2003.

While there is no prospect of that threshold being reached, the dispatch of any letters would indicate a level of concern on the Tory backbenches about the direction in which Mr Cameron is taking the party.

In an interview for Sky News's Sunday Live recorded before news of the supposed letters broke, Mr Cameron was asked whether he still believed he could win the next election.

He replied immediately: "Yes. There is going to be a very tough battle for the next election, there's no doubt about it.

"But when I look at what my party has done in terms of getting into the centre, the serious long-term policy work, the team that I have got in place, I think we have every chance of fighting that election, fighting to win and winning it."