Campaign team say we can win

Senior Tories put on a display of unity today - insisting they will fight to win the next election.

Campaign Director Lynton Crosby and party co-chairman Lord Saatchi published a joint letter insisting they are intent on victory.

The pair - said to be at the centre of a bitter turf war - claim that their careers show they are not defeatists.

It follows claims that Mr Crosby has privately accepted that the Conservatives have no chance of winning and should concentrate on "saving face" by cutting the number of target seats. Today the two men tried to repair the damage by insisting they are both confident about the party's prospects. In a letter in today's Times, they say it is "totally untrue" that they have already accepted defeat.

They write: "Anyone who knows either of us and what we have achieved in our careers should know that 'second place' does not enter our vocabulary.

"We are in the business of winning an overall majority at the general election and we believe that this objective is achievable." Last month, there were claims that Lord Saatchi was trying to oust Mr Crosby amid differences over strategy.

Mr Crosby, widely credited with winning four elections for Australian Prime Minister John Howard, was brought in by Tory leader Michael Howard to shore up the flagging campaign.

The claims of in-fighting follow a bleak fortnight for the Conservatives. Veteran Tory MP Robert Jackson defected to Labour and recent research by Populus suggests that Labour is heading for another landslide.