DAVID CAMERON proposes tax relief for childcare today as he tries to stop the Kenneth Clarke bandwagon and challenge his claim to be the only candidate who can widen the Conservative appeal.

Writing in The Times, the Shadow Education Secretary tells Mr Clarke that it is not enough just to talk about the need to get in touch with the country; the Tories had to demonstrate step by step how they intended to do it.

As the former Chancellor begins his third leadership campaign with a big speech in London in which he will attack Tony Blair over the Iraq war, Mr Cameron will break into a family holiday in Devon to present his vision of making Britain the most civilised place in the world to live.

Previewing it in The Times Mr Cameron puts himself forward as the candidate with the ideas to take his party and country forward. The Conservatives stopped short of promising tax relief for childcare at the election but Mr Cameron says that it is now time to embrace it. He suggests radical plans to improve life in Britain’s cities.

He calls for a drastic shift of power and control from the centre to local level, a new generation of visionary civic leaders and more elected mayors in the cities. He says that the Conservatives’ response to rural development pressure cannot simply be to oppose it. Instead they must fight just as hard for low-cost housing, shared ownership and starter homes for young people as they do for protecting the countryside.

In an obvious dig at the man who many believe will replace him as the leading challenger to David Davis, he says that he agrees with Mr Clarke’s statement that the Tories must broaden their appeal. But he then adds: “It is not enough to say it; we need to show, step by step, how we plan to do it and in particular how we articulate a vision for the future that will inspire a new generation of voters in 2009.”

Today’s battle between Mr Clarke and his younger opponent shows how vital it is for them to get into the top two. Mr Clarke has stolen a march on his two main rivals by calling his key supporters to Westminster while they are out of London. His action prompted a fourth contender, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, to announce that he was standing and to unveil his team of Crispin Blunt, Jacqui Lait and Peter Bottomley.

Mr Clarke posed with some of his leading supporters, Tim Yeo, David Curry, Ann Widdecombe and John Bercow, at the St Stephen’s Club. His decision to speak on Iraq today will show how he, as an opponent of the war, can criticise the Government in way that other senior Conservatives cannot.

He said yesterday that he was desperate to lead the Conservatives back to power. He said that he was well qualified for the job because he had held most jobs in government before. “I think I am getting frustrated by the fact that we have been out of office for eight years,” he said. “I desperately want to lead the Conservative Party to make quicker progress back into power.”

He laughed at a suggestion that he may be too old to lead the Conservatives: “In this day and age, it is quite ridiculous to say I am too old.”

But that was the charge being levelled at him from some quarters. A source close to Mr Cameron said: “While people will have fond memories of what Ken has done in the past, many MPs feel that at 70 by the next election he will be too old to lead the Conservative Party and that he no longer represents the centre of gravity of Conservative MPs today.”

Oliver Letwin, the Shadow Environment Secretary, who is supporting Mr Cameron, also argued that Mr Clarke’s time had gone. “I am a tremendous admirer of Ken’s,” he said. “He is an admirable person and a very remarkable one. But I believe . . . that David Cameron has the makings of a great leader of the Conservative Party and one who can reach out to millions of voters who haven’t voted for us in the recent past.”

Ms Widdecombe argued that Mr Clarke’s age should not count against him. She said: “We went for a young and very bright and capable person in 1997 (William Hague), no progress. We went for youth again in 2001 (Iain Duncan Smith), no progress. When we finally then handed the party over to somebody in their 60s, in the shape of Michael Howard, we made the first real electoral gains that we have made for over a decade.”

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