A GROUP of disaffected Tory businessmen and donors is planning to launch a breakaway political party aimed at challenging both the Conservatives and Labour.

The group, which includes a leading Scottish industrialist and multi-millionaire, plans to field candidates in most seats at the next general election if its ideas take off.

Styling themselves “progressives”, the businessmen hope to attract wealthy donors and thousands of supporters including Conservatives who despair at the current leadership and Labour voters disillusioned with Tony Blair’s government.

They have already hired consultants to advise them on political strategy and promotion of the party and have approached a leading academic to front a new think tank.

Although the founders share many traditional Tory concerns, such as overregulation of business, much of their criticism of modern Britain focuses on the need to help poorer sections of society and their ideas reflect those of the “modernisers” within the Tory party.

The move is potentially worrying for Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservative leader. In the 1997 election, the Referendum party led by the late Sir James Goldsmith won defectors from the Tories and cost them thousands of votes.

Rather than focus on a single issue like Goldsmith’s party, which campaigned against the euro, the new group is developing policies across the political spectrum. It has been described by insiders as “centre-right, one nation” in its approach.

Mark Adams, a former Downing Street official who is advising them, said: “This is a group of people who have got a serious set of ideas about how the country should be run. They are mainly disaffected Tories, some of whom were initially attracted to new Labour but feel Tony Blair has let the country down as well.”

Although the members of the group do not want to be named yet, The Sunday Times has spoken privately to one multi-millionaire founder, a former Tory donor. He said he wanted the group’s ideas to be pushed into the limelight before any personalities were revealed. Their plot has so far been highly secret and is known only to a handful of people, mainly friends and advisers to the businessmen, who are set to reveal themselves in the coming weeks.They have booked a special bulk delivery at the Post Office over the Christmas period in order to send out leaflets to thousands of homes across the country.

A new website — www.newpartyforbritain.org — is launched today, revealing for the first time the manifesto of the breakaway party. Its initial manifesto, proclaiming that “now is the time for a new party for a new Britain”, points to new policies on health, education, crime, industry and transport.

The manifesto states: “From a position of unprecedented strength, Britain’s future now gives serious cause for con- cern. Our economy is slipping back, our society is crumbling and our public services are declining. We appear less able than ever before to deal effectively with fundamental issues such as education, health, housing, industry and transport.

“Many despair at falling living and social standards and see our nation falling behind in a rapidly developing world,” the group warns. “If our decline is not reversed, we risk irreparable damage to the social and economic fabric of our country.”

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