DAVID CAMERON will say today that there is no prospect of forming a “dream ticket” with Kenneth Clarke for the Tory leadership.

In a speech restarting his own leadership campaign after the summer recess, Mr Cameron will strongly take issue with Mr Clarke’s disagreement with the Iraq war. He will emphasise that the war was right and that Britain must complete its mission to build a democratic society in that country.

Failure to complete the task would signal weakness to “a determined and fanatical foe” and serve only to fuel Islamic terrorism.

His strong backing for the Iraq war is intended to show the stark differences between his views and Mr Clarke’s.

Many of his supporters believe Mr Cameron, 38, would back David Davis, the frontrunner, rather than Mr Clarke if he fails to make it to the final run-off, although they are still confident that he will make it.

Yesterday Mr Clarke, one of the Conservative Party’s greatest pro-Europeans, stunned colleagues when he declared that the euro was a failure and said there was no prospect of Britain joining for ten years or more.

His dramatic U-turn led to speculation among MPs that he was hastily trying to build support for his leadership campaign in the predominantly eurosceptic party. Supporters of Mr Cameron, however, will hope that the former Chancellor’s position on Iraq will cause him just as many problems with MPs as the euro.

In his speech Mr Cameron will compare Islamic fundamentalism to other forms of totalitarianism, including Nazism and Communism, and say any talk of concessions would fail.

“Premature withdrawal — and failure to support the Iraqi authority — would be seen as a surrender to militant jihadism. Nothing would embolden the terrorist more,” he will tell the Foreign Policy Centre think-tank.

The speech, which was cleared with Mr Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, is the first of a series setting out his views on key issues facing the party. Mr Cameron is a relatively inexperienced MP, having arrived at the Commons in 2001, and many MPs do not know his views on a range of policy areas. Supporters said it was important he tackled terrorism, the major issue of the day, and made a “thoughtful, yet robust” contribution.

Although he is from the modernising wing of the party, which believes the Tories must change, the speech underlines that Mr Cameron is also a rightwinger. His campaign, however, has suffered from the emergence of Mr Clarke who, it seems, will soon formally declare his intention to stand.

Lord Heseltine, the former Trade and Industry Secretary, threw his weight behind Mr Clarke yesterday and said only he could tackle the problems facing the Conservatives. “He is head and shoulders ahead of any other candidate.”

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