Howard plan launched within hours

The plan to "crown" Michael Howard as the next Tory leader was launched by MPs within hours of the confidence vote in Iain Duncan Smith being called.

It emerged as the Evening Standard spoke to a number of MPs from all wings and all levels of the party, including shadow cabinet members, other frontbenchers and backbenchers.

Bars and restaurants at the Commons were teeming with intrigue as Tories wrote off Mr Duncan Smith's chances and began to play fantasy politics by lining up new-look top teams.

Mr Howard - the bookies' favourite - was the name most often mentioned, with shadow local government minister David Davis seen as his chief rival.

Shadow trade secretary Tim Yeo, a fiercely ambitious figure, was being lined up by modernisers and former supporters of Michael Portillo as a "stop Davis" candidate if no deal could be reached.

One shadow cabinet minister said: "The obvious choice is Michael - preferably without a contest." He said he would be voting for Mr Duncan Smith today.

But he looked to the shadow Chancellor to take the party forward if, as strongly expected, the beleaguered leader lost heavily.

A fellow frontbencher was one of several who served notice they would not be backing Mr Duncan Smith in the confidence vote, despite hitting out at the plotters who had sealed his fate.

He said: "The fact we have got to this point fills me with despair - but we are where we are.

"I'm sorry to say that Iain is now damaged goods and it is just impossible to see him carrying on as leader."

The frontbencher was another to put forward the idea of a coronation, which he said would offer voters an "important show of unity after a desperate few months".

A backbencher from the left wing of the party said he felt others like him - natural supporters of former Chancellor Kenneth Clarke - could rally behind Mr Howard.

He added: "What would be the best thing is a coronation - but it would depend on Davis agreeing to it. He might well believe that he has a very good chance of winning the ballot of our activists, so why should he agree to a stitch-up? Make no mistake, this is high on the agenda as we speak.

"If you could do it properly you could have a high-profile event at a conference centre, bussing in constituency chairmen, putting it on TV, the whole works."

A former minister from John Major's government signalled she would not be voting for Mr Duncan Smith, though she added she could change her mind if he gave a barnstorming speech at this afternoon's meeting of MPs.

Asked who she would support in a leadership contest she replied: "I don't know who's going to be standing, darling. I may be an old witch but I haven't got a crystal ball."

Former Tory chairman Archie Norman, who is suspected of being one of at least 25 MPs who demanded a vote of confidence in IDS, said of the leader: "When you're gone, you're gone."

Front-bench local government spokesman Geoffrey Clifton-Brown - another believed to be on the list of 25 - said: "I will not be voting for Iain Duncan Smith."

Mr Duncan Smith's dwindling band of supporters were the most willing to state their intentions publicly.

Former shadow home secretary Ann Widdecombe, who once described Mr Howard as having "something of the night" about him, claimed: "I shall certainly be voting for Iain."

Shadow secretary of state for Scotland, Jacqui Lait, said: "I will be supporting Iain. I have already told my constituency association about my plans."

London spokesman Eric Pickles missed the drama at Westminster because he was driving back from an engagement in the north.

He said: "I'm thinking of writing a book on great political events which I wasn't there for. But I will be loyal to the leader."

Right-winger Andrew Rossindell said: "I shall be voting for the leader."

Shadow foreign minister Alan Duncan, once a power broker who played a key role in William Hague's campaign to become leader in 1997, also claimed he would back IDS.

But he conceded his leader had a "charisma" problem.

Another right-wing MP, Angela Watkinson, said: "I am 100 per cent loyal. I have been all along."