DAMAGING divisions have surfaced among senior Conservatives over how to deal with the threat of the UK Independence Party with just a week to go before polling day.

The Tories are deeply split over whether to attack the anti-EU party head on and attempt to discredit it, or concentrate on sharpening up their own case on the EU.

Some of Michael Howard’s closest advisers are alarmed that this week’s attack on UKIP as “extremist” may have backfired, alienating prospective Tory voters. They fear it looks like an admission that the Conservatives have failed to get their own Eurosceptic message across.

Many were horrified that a briefing describing UKIP members as “cranks and political gadflies” was revealed in The Times on Monday. Mr Howard, the Tory leader, is thought to have been deeply angered by the revelation.

“It was not what Michael intended at all,” said one insider. Mr Howard backed away from the slur in a halting performance during a BBC interview yesterday, saying it only applied to some UKIP members. The recriminations over how UKIP has gained a foothold in the Tory heartland are so intense that some are predicting a Shadow Cabinet reshuffle after the June 10 elections.

Liam Fox, the party’s right-wing co-chairman, is said to back a hardening of the rhetoric on UKIP. He faced stiff opposition in a series of heated meetings last week over how to deal with the threat, but got his way. Mr Howard delivered his first major attack on the party in a speech on Tuesday.

The knives are out for Michael Ancram, Shadow Foreign Secretary, for failing to put together a robust strategy for selling the party’s stance. Mr Howard set out his tough European policy in February, advocating a more flexible approach to integration and renegotiation of the EU constitution. Critics say that Mr Ancram failed to get that message across and left a gap that UKIP was only too happy to fill.

In a sign of increasing desperation, John Redwood, the former Trade and Industry Secretary and arch-Eurosceptic, has been summoned from the back benches to defend the party’s policy on radio and television. “John Redwood is well known for his fervent Eurosceptic views, so when he backs the party’s policy on flexibility he has credibility with the many hundreds of thousands of Eurosceptics that other Tories lack,” said one MP.

Labour was quick to seize upon Mr Howard’s fresh woes, saying his awkward interview performance was evidence that the Tory leader was papering over widening cracks in his party over Europe. It hopes to underline the impression that Mr Howard’s arrival as leader has only temporarily halted internal Tory squabbles over Europe.

Douglas Alexander, the Cabinet Office Minister, said: “Mr Howard is suffering great difficulties in the midst of this campaign trying to keep united what is an increasingly divided Conservative Party on the contentious issue of Europe.”

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Tree stump 'shows image of Virgin Mary'
• BBC drops Strictly judge for younger model
• Trafalgar Square 'reduced to a spectacle'