The Conservative Party has not yet broadened its appeal enough to be elected, one of David Cameron’s key lieutenants has told The Times.

Andrew Lansley, the Shadow Health Secretary and a leading reformer, said that the party had “a way to go” on the modernisation project and that the public did not, in its heart, fully trust the party.

He also became the first member of the Shadow Cabinet to admit that the Derek Conway affair had damaged the party and he appeared to criticise Baroness Thatcher.

He said that while people’s heads were telling them to vote Conservative, their “heart is holding them back”. The comments are the closest that any member of the party has come to repeating Theresa May’s declaration that the Tories were seen as the “nasty party”.

Mr Cameron has been accused of playing to the Right in recent months. On Monday he announced that he was in favour of lowering the abortion limit; he has discussed immigration and made tax reductions the centrepiece of last autumn’s conference.

The party has launched a series of ten advertisements aimed at different groups, including one on immigration in the Daily Mail and another on economic competence in today’s Times.

Asked whether people completely trusted the Conservatives, Mr Lansley said: “No, I still think we have a way to go with people, in their feeling. Which is why what Derek Conway did, and his attitude, were so unhelpful. It just reminded people of one of the reasons they didn’t support the Conservatives. People feel that the characteristic of the Conservative Party that they want to change is that they want to see a party which isn’t all for itself, looking after themselves.”

He said that Conservative associations with long-standing MPs were often those that had the least modern attitudes. “As a Member of Parliament you visit lots of constituency associations. Some have dramatically changed. The greatest test we have [is with] associations that have always won their elections, and by a mile.

You’re far more likely to meet people whose attitude hasn’t changed. I’ve been reading Robert Peel’s book about the ‘ultras’ [ultra Conservatives]. The Conservative Party always has ultras.”

Mr Lansley also appeared to venture criticism of Lady Thatcher for discarding the One Nation philosophy when she was in No 10. “The Conservative Party has always been the inheritor of liberalism, one nation, and of Toryism. Under Margaret, we were classical liberals, but we lost those other bits. Under David Cameron we’re finding all three again.”

Mr Lansley said that while some Tories had changed not everyone accepted that the party had gone far enough. “I think there’s actually quite a mature thought around a lot of my colleagues around the country. Britain has changed. We do have a multicultural society; we do have a very diverse society; we do have an attitude on social issues [that] is far more small-l liberal. It’s changed and it’s not going to change back, and it’s far better.”

Of the electorate he said: “Their head might say they need a Conservative government now, because the economy is being mismanaged and the public services are being mismanaged and [because of] the [in]ability of Brown and his Government to deliver on any of his promises. So their head is telling them they need a Conservative government but their heart is holding them back.”

He criticised overseas models of healthcare — including the US insurance system — which have been championed by Tories in the past, saying that the party would not be seeking to import other countries’ systems.

“America, arguably, is itself moving towards a situation where its healthcare expenditures are unsustainable, but they are not all funded out of taxation. The American system isn’t more effective than ours, it’s enormously expensive and there are serious inequalities that result from it. The French healthcare system is basically bust and . . . they have doctors on the streets demonstrating because they regard themselves as underpaid.”

He said that people had to regard the party as a social liberal party. “What they have seen in David Cameron’s Conservative Party is one that is capable of being a rigorous, free-market-orientated party, a Eurosceptic party and a social liberal party.”

His comments came as a letter appeared in The Spectator from Lord Tebbit, the former Tory chairman, attacking Michael Gove, the Shadow Secretary for Children, Schools and Families, for saying that he admired Tony Blair.

Lord Tebbit wrote: “It was Blair who introduced uncontrolled, unmeasured immigration of people determined not to integrate, but to establish first ghettoes, and now demands for separate legal jurisdiction. In biblical terms, Blairism is the poisonous tree which can give forth only poisonous fruit and must be rooted out.”

How to be an online friend – just pay us £1

The Conservative Party is trying to recruit new “friends” using the social networking website Facebook. Voters are invited to become a “Friend of the Conservatives” and receive updates about the party and advice on getting involved in return for a donation of as little as £1. The party has hired the film director Matthew Vaughn, who is married to the model Claudia Schiffer and whose credits include Layer Cake and Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, as “creative consultant”. His film, starring the party leader David Cameron, pictured, is part of a £500,000 publicity campaign focusing on ten policy areas to raise funds and attract supporters. The “friends” will not enjoy the voting rights of full members.

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