Kenneth Clarke was today knocked out in the first round of the Tory leadership contest, his hopes of finally leading his party destroyed by his younger rival on the left of the party, David Cameron.

The former Chancellor, at 65 the oldest of the four candidates, was rebuffed for the third time in three straight attempts to lead the Conservatives.

"It's time for a younger leader, probably, though I stood not thinking my age would be relevant," Mr Clarke said after leaving the Commons committee room where the result was announced. "I think I contributed to the debate in a positive way and pointed the way to how the Conservative party should win an election in the future."

Sir Michael Spicer, chairman of the backbench 1922 committee, announced that David Davis had come top of the ballot with 62 votes, but Mr Cameron had run him extremely close by taking 56.

Liam Fox, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, took 42 votes while Mr Clarke - the self-described "Big Beast" of the party, received 38 votes of the 198 cast.

The big winner of the day was Mr Cameron, who had clearly taken the lion's share of undeclared MPs and persuaded others to defect from Mr Clarke. Mr Cameron's star has soared since his relaxed and confident performance at the party conference two weeks ago when he presented himself as the man to lead the Conservatives through a period of reform.

And although Mr Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary who was long seen as the favourite, managed to claim the most votes, speculation immediately began to mount that his support could fall away as rightwingers choose Dr Fox as the only candidate that can prevent Mr Cameron winning the popular vote.

But Mr Davis put a brave face on the result, telling reporters: "We topped the poll. We got the largest number of MPs. I am very grateful to my colleagues."

The second ballot is on Thursday after which the two remaining candidates have six weeks to woo 300,000 Conservative members before a postal vote that closes on Monday December 5. The result is due the following day.

With Mr Clarke out of the way, Mr Cameron is all but guaranteed to make the run-off vote, and is a 3-1-on favourite to become leader.

There was tension in the corridor outside the committee room as the result of the vote was delayed for 10 minutes, as Sir Michael Spicer rechecked the votes.

Mr Davis's support has been on the slide since a poor conference speech two weeks ago. Analysts said earlier that any figure below the 67 he has declared would spell serious trouble for the 54-year-old former SAS territorial.

Both the Davis and the Cameron camps will now be engaged in complex calculations of who will gain when Mr Clarke's supporters transfer their allegiance.

Mr Cameron said: "It is a good result - it is better than I expected. My team have worked incredibly hard. We have had a very good response from members of the public, from Members of Parliament, from party chairmen, from party members and it is a very pleasing result.

"But we go to focus now on the second ballot and make sure we talk to Kenneth Clarke and all of his supporters and try and encourage them to back me in this all-important second ballot so we can go through to the next stage and the country with the strongest possible vote of members of Parliament."

The vote ends Mr Clarke's hopes of ever leading his party or country, despite his significant support amongst grass-roots Tory members and among the public at large. Last night he gave warning that there would be "a great deal of ill feeling" if he did not make the final round.

Philip Webster, the Political Editor of The Times, said: "This is the end of Ken Clarke's leadership hopes, and really the end of his political career. It was a surprise when he went for the leadership and I think today's result reflects the fact that he didn't put enough work in during the early stages of the campaign."

To the frustration of his rivals, Mr Cameron managed to turn what could have been a damaging row over whether he took drugs at university to his advantage during the early rounds of campaigning. He told the MPs at the hustings that the last week had shown that "if you take the right approach, stick to your guns and are calm under the pressure" then you come through. The last week had shown his "strength under fire", he said.

Mr Cameron was pressed on precisely what he intended to do to modernise the party. He said that it would have to look, sound and feel totally different, and MPs had to be prepared to drop policies such as the patient passport, which looked to voters like a subsidy for the middle classes.

The last time the Tories held a leadership contest, on July 21 2001, the eventual winner came second in the first round. After the first ballot of MPs, the early favourite Michael Portillo came top with 50, but Iain Duncan Smith pushed him closer than expected with 42 votes. Mr Duncan Smith went on to win.

In that ballot Mr Clarke came third, with 39 votes, and Mr Davis came second from bottom with 18 votes, one above Michael Ancram with 17. Mr Davis later pulled out, saying that there was no way he could win.

Next steps

October 20: 1pm - 5pm second ballot of the Tory MPs. Name of second eliminated candidate announced at 5.20pm

October 21 - December 5: final two candidates speak at 11 leadership hustings around England, Wales and Scotland. Postal voting by 300,000 Tory party members

December 5: Postal voting closes

December 6: Result of ballot announced

December 7: New Tory leader clashes with Tony Blair for the first time across the dispatch box at Prime Minister's Questions

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