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Tory chairman Eric Pickles today imposed a champagne ban on visitors to the party's annual conference.
In an interview with the Evening Standard, he said it was their duty to look "humble" and avoid offending voters with shows of extravagance.
"Basically, I want to see less champagne bubbles and more bubbling activity," he said. He spoke out on the opening day of what is widely expected to be the final Tory conference before the party goes into government for the first time in 12 years.
"It's actually a humbling thing, if people give us their trust against the background of a recession," he went on. "It is genuinely humbling, and we expect people to behave like that and to reflect that.
"My worry is not so much about our representatives. But there are rather a lot of people from the commercial sector who have come here, and they ought to recognise it."
The Conservatives have been embarrassed in previous years by reports of champagne corks popping in the conference hotels and are desperate to avoid looking as if they are taking election victory for granted.
However, business lobbyists are attending the Manchester gathering in force, eager to curry favour with future ministers by throwing ostentatious parties.
Mr Pickles said the election was not yet in the bag. "I hope we will be in government but there is an enormous hill to climb.
"We need to win 117 seats and the last time that happened was 1931 and Al Capone was being sentenced for tax evasion."
With the first TV debate expected during the election, the Tory chairman accused Gordon Brown of attempting to fix the questions in advance.
He seized on remarks by Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who has suggested a special independent commission to set the rules of the debates. Mr Pickles said that in the US a commission even ensured that presidential candidates are told in advance what questions they would be asked.
"There must be a suspicion that is what Labour wants," he said.
He said it would be unacceptable to the Conservatives for questions to be fixed, instead saying broadcasters should ask whatever questions they judged to be important.
"It's got to be spontaneous," he added. "These things would be utterly wasted if they became an exchange of statistics and press handouts. The press may be annoying sometimes but those are often the best bits."
He also warned against too much haggling over the rules.
"I certainly don't think the public's in the mood for a long discussion about the size of the podium or the style of the chairs."
With the party focusing on unemployment in its first session today, Mr Pickles admitted that the Conservatives had made mistakes and "left some people behind" in the mass unemployment of the Eighties. "This is where David Cameron comes in," he said.
"He is very committed to social responsibility and there is a real determination that this time no one gets left behind.
"We will be judged by the way in which we change the lives of people on run-down council estates, in sink schools and particularly the long-term unemployed. We will be judged against that backdrop of the most vulnerable.
"It's quite daring stuff. We are not going to play safe this week. We are going to start taking some risks."
Reader views (1)
That arrogant idiot Duncan should stepped down ages ago. He is a hindrance to the party's image.
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 05/10/2009 11:35
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