IDS goes into battle against BBC

An embattled Iain Duncan Smith was today plunged into a bruising row with the BBC after he was forced to listen to senior members of his own party giving the thumbs-down to his first year as leader.

The BBC prefaced an anniversary interview with Mr Duncan Smith with a series of scathing Tory assessments of his record.

MP Archie Norman, a former shadow cabinet member and one-time boss of Asda, said the year had been characterised by "a sense of drift".

There was a still more devastating verdict from Amanda Platell, William Hague's director of communications and one of the former leader's most loyal allies.

She said that Mr Duncan Smith was "a very decent, hard-working man".

His problem was that he was up against Tony Blair, "one of the best leaders this country has ever seen and who has this incredible combination of normalness and greatness. Combine that with charisma and it's almost unbeatable. And with all the best will in the world and being as generous as we can, Iain does not possess those qualities."

Mr Duncan Smith, clearly furious, told his Today programme interviewer John Humphrys: "Nice balanced packaged there."

When Mr Humphrys said "Well, that's what they are saying", Mr Duncan Smith snapped back: "That's what you wanted to go round and find they are saying. You are talking to people who no longer have an involvement with the party, and someone that I fired."

Mr Duncan Smith was today marking his first anniversary in charge of the Tory party with a speech pinpointing the five new challenges that "blight Britain today".

However, this further signal of intent to modernise the party was overshadowed by the crisis over Iraq.

In a speech delivered in the East End today, he reaffirmed his aim to rebrand the Tories as a party determined to improve public services and concentrate on the key issues of concern to voters.

He highlighted five new challenges: crime, failing schools, below-standard healthcare, child poverty and insecurity in old age.

In a deliberate echo of the Beveridge Report that inspired the 1945 Labour government he compared those issues to the "five giants" of want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness which Beveridge identified.

Mr Duncan Smith is facing a difficult party conference, with revolt in the air amid concern over his failure to make an impact in his first year as party leader. The text of the speech was hailed by Tory modernisers.

But there is anxiety across the party over the fact that the Conservatives' standing in the opinion polls is not noticeably better than when Mr Duncan Smith took charge.

The doubts look certain to surface at the party conference in Bournemouth next month when some of the traditionalists, including the party's anti-Europeans, aim to stage a strong comeback.

The leadership is planning to keep the gathering under tight control, and the usual timetable has been thrown out and replaced by sessions which will start later in the day and run into the evening in the hope of capturing more television air time.