Tory Party 'turned in on itself'

Arch-moderniser Michael Gove criticised the Tories for fighting among themselves, allowing Mr Brown to steal a march on them in the battle for the centre-ground.

In an interview with The House magazine, the shadow schools minister insisted Mr Brown's determination only reinforced the need for the Tories to step up their modernising agenda.

"While the Conservative Party was having its debate, Gordon Brown was preparing for the exercise of power," Mr Gove told a special Conservative Party conference edition of the magazine. He has moved quickly, and cynically, to endear himself to moral conservatives in the press with the adoption of Conservative Party policies on gambling, drugs and the licensing laws."

While accusing Mr Brown of manipulating the media, Mr Gove said the Tories had to redouble their efforts to take him on.

"His determination as a political operator has been underlined, and the requirement for the Conservative Party to itself stick more determinedly to the mainstream, demonstrate even more powerfully how it has changed and prove itself serious about governing for the whole nation, has been powerfully reinforced," he added.

Tory leader David Cameron faced party in-fighting this year over his move to ditch grammar schools and concerns about the Conservatives' performance in May's local elections.

Mr Gove said, after those elections and then Mr Brown's takeover from Tony Blair in June, the Tories failed to maintain discipline.

"Instead of making our own occupation of the political mainstream more secure, the Conservative Party turned in on itself," he said.

Mr Cameron faces a new warning from Conservative peer Lord Fowler, a Cabinet minister under Margaret Thatcher, who said the party was too divided to win an election.