Cameron and Davis go head-to-head
Tory leadership hopefuls David Davis and David Cameron today began the first of 11 hustings as they strive to win over undecided party members across the country.
This morning they engaged in a head-to-head debate in Leicester, after which Mr Davis proclaimed himself confident, telling World at One: “The collective view seems to be that I won.”
He added: “Today was a victory for me, as was Question Time. All these things build up … A large number of people haven’t made up their minds.”
And he once again attacked Mr Cameron’s campaign style, calling it “more like the early Blair strategy”.
“Our argument today in the hall was that it would be rather ironic if we started to try Blair’s approach at the time when the public at large are getting rather sick of it,” Mr Davis said.
He also dismissed a recent opinion poll which appeared to suggest the leadership race is heading in favour of Mr Cameron, saying such polls had been “very wrong” before.
“The simple truth is that we’ve had an opinion poll this week that was from my point of view poor. There’s an opinion poll at the middle of the week which was 50 per cent to 37 per cent in may favour,” Mr Davis said.
The two candidates will attend another hustings this evening in Solihull, as the leadership race enters its final few weeks.
Some of the party’s 250,000 voting members have already cast their ballot – although the deadline is not until December 5th – and a poll this weekend suggested Mr Cameron has won the majority of these.
A survey in Saturday’s Daily Telegraph showed that 68 per cent of members who have returned their papers backed the shadow education secretary.
Among those who have yet to vote, the 39-year-old is also in the lead, with only 34 per cent saying they will back Mr Davis.
Mr Cameron’s campaign also received a boost when former Tory leader William Hague and former leadership rival Liam Fox gave him their backing, taking the number of MPs who are supporting him to about 105.
Speaking yesterday, the shadow education secretary said this support gave him a “great mandate” to take his campaign out across Britain, adding: “I think the momentum is with my campaign.”
However, Mr Davis’ supporters insist the shadow home secretary is not yet beaten, and that a lot rests on how well he performs in the hustings. They said he would continue to put forward strong, practical policies.
