Night Tories came back from the dead

General election 2005 will be remembered as the night the Conservative Party came back from the dead. True, the Tories did not win or come anywhere near it. But they achieved something almost as important. They recovered their sense of self-belief.

Only last night, as the polls closed, many senior Tories were braced for another night of horror along the lines of 1997 and 2001. Gruesome rumours floated round that private polls suggested a Labour majority of 146.

Only 48 hours ago one senior Tory rang me to express his growing sense of despair. "It's all gone wrong," he said - confidently predicting his party would lose rather than gain seats.

This May Day massacre never occurred. The reverse happened. For the first time in a generation the Conservatives made strong gains in a general election. Not since 1983 has the cry routinely gone round television studios: "Conservative gain, Conservative gain."

But last night the chant was heard repeatedly as ancient losses were avenged. Even Enfield Southgate - the scene of Michael Portillo's disaster in 1997 - came back home to the Tories.

For the first time in more than 20 years Conservatives will return to Parliament after a general election looking forward to the prospect of occupying more rather than fewer seats on the green benches of the Commons. This new state of affairs will dramatically change the mood of the chamber.

In 1997 and 2001 a mutinous and defeated rabble went back to Westminster and promptly embarked on civil war. As a result the Tories were incompetent to carry out even the most basic tasks of an opposition.

This time round Tory MPs will return with a sense of purpose not seen since the early days of Margaret Thatcher.

Before last night, leadership supporters of shadow cabinet ministers like David Davis and Liam Fox were preparing to launch leadership campaigns and to stab Michael Howard in the back.

Instead Mr Howard has his mandate. He exercises an authority none of his three predecessors - Iain Duncan Smith, William Hague or John Major - was ever able to exercise.

There will be no leadership challenge. For him last night is a personal triumph and vindication. No praise is high enough for Mr Howard. He fought a long and lonely election battle against all the odds.

He received precious little help from colleagues. Indeed, over recent weeks he has been victim of critical backstairs briefing from senior colleagues against his decision to highlight immigration as an election issue and other alleged mistakes.

Now his election strategy has been proved right. And Mr Howard knows the names of the briefers.

Eighteen months ago Michael Howard took over a Tory party that was on the verge of suicide. It was not just going nowhere. It was going backwards. There was a genuine chance it could be overtaken in the polls by the Liberal Democrats.

Now the apparently inexorable Lib-Dem rise against the Tories has been staunched and a number of vital seats, like Newbury, reclaimed.

Nevertheless it is important for Mr Howard to grasp that his triumph is very limited.

True, he has saved the party from collapse - but he has not yet made them a party of government. Aided by his Australian strategist Lynton Crosbie (being lined up as scapegoat had yesterday gone wrong), Mr Howard fought a brilliant but negative campaign.

It focused too much on issues like immigration, presenting the Tories as a party of protest.

In the months ahead this newly energised Conservative party must devise policies which appeal to the broad mass of the British people and not just core Tory supporters. They must be warm-hearted and generous, and appeal to people's hopes as well as their fears.

The Conservatives must show they have important things to say about the issues they ducked at this election: about the management of public services, about the running of the economy, about transport and the environment.

That is a massive task. Just how massive is shown by close examination of last night's results.

The Tories may have added some 40 seats to their paltry total - but that was mainly as an indirect effect of Lib-Dem gains.