Don't flirt with UKIP, Patten tells Tories

Former Tory chairman Chris Patten today blamed Michael Howard's shift to the Right for the party's failure to show a post-conference bounce in the opinion polls.

Mr Patten, an outgoing British Commissioner in Brussels, made a savage attack on the "virtual reality" of Mr Howard's policy on Europe.

His remarks came as Michael Portillo also criticised Tory policies and an ICM poll put the party on only 30 per cent, compared with Labour on 39 and the Liberal Democrats on 23 per cent. This was despite a relatively trouble-free annual conference in Bournemouth.

In an interview today, Mr Patten attacked Mr Howard for "flirting" with the UK Independence Party by pledging to renegotiate European treaties on fishing and social policy.

"If you decide to repatriate fish policy, are you going to depend on our fish being taught to swim only in our territorial waters?" asked the former defence secretary. "Is this the real world?"

Mr Patten said the Tories should attack the "xenophobic" UKIP head-on instead of trying to compete with it.