IDS vows to fight for his job

Iain Duncan Smith today faced doom at the hands of his own party after 25 MPs forced a vote of confidence in his leadership.

A defiant Mr Duncan Smith instantly announced that he will fight for his political life in a ballot of the 165 Tory MPs. That will be held tomorrow.

All the odds are that he will lose - and plunge the party into yet another contest for the crown. Mr Duncan Smith, flanked by his wife, Betsy, and senior members of the shadow cabinet, marched out of Conservative Central Office HQ to face the media.

He declared that he welcomed the chance to end "this ludicrous leadership speculation" and warned the party that a switch of leaders at this stage would be met with "despair and contempt" by the voters.

The prediction from MPs, however, is that he is certain to lose, and that even if he scraped a narrow majority his authority would be so damaged he would find it impossible to carry on.

This afternoon the manoeuvring for the succession was already under way. Shadow chancellor Michael Howard, the current front runner, joined three of his senior shadow cabinet colleagues in signing a statement of support for Mr Duncan Smith - valid, at any rate, until tomorrow night's ballot result. He was joined by another likely contender, deputy leader Michael Ancram. Whether by accident or design, the name of the other all-but-certain runner, shadow cabinet minister David Davis, was not on the list.

All were due this afternoon at a hurriedly summoned emergency session of the shadow cabinet. Mr Duncan Smith's aides said they expected more loyalty declarations to follow.

The news that the 25 letters required by the rules to trigger a confidence vote had been written was delivered to Mr Duncan Smith by Sir Michael Spicer, chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee at nine this morning.

In a bizarre episode, Mr Duncan Smith kept the news to himself for the next four hours. His closest advisors said this afternoon that they were not informed until one o'clock. He did, however, tell his wife, Betsy, who hurried to join him.

Mr Duncan Smith issued a written statement through Conservative Central Office in which he said: "I regard it as my duty to warn my party that a change in leadership at this stage will be regarded with despair and contempt by many loyal supporters and gravely imperil the party's prospects at the next election."

Together they then met members of the shadow cabinet including Mr Howard, Mr Ancram, party chairman Theresa May and shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin, for a session which lasted around an hour and a half. Even before the news broke there was growing certainty-around Westminster that the plotters, after weeks of effort, had finally made the tipping point to provoke a contest.

Senior figures came out of the shadows to announce they had written in in favour of a vote, not least former shadow chancellor Francis Maude. Writing in the Evening Standard he declared that Mr Duncan Smith's authority had evaporated and that change must come.

By lunchtime, five brave Conservatives had named themselves but they were clearly the tip of an iceberg. Sir Michael did not tell the leader how many letters had arrived calling for a contest. And, bound by a strict confidentiality rule, he kept the undeclared names to himself.

The 1922 Committee, which includes all Tory MPs, will now meet at 2pm tomorrow. They will hear a speech from Mr Duncan Smith and then move immediately to a secret ballot.