View from London: Tory leadership candidates split on joining euro

The euro lurks far down the agenda of most British voters, as the last general election demonstrated. Yet it will probably decide the outcome of a long-winded contest for the leadership of the Conservative Party.

As the largest opposition party, the Tories seized on saving the pound as one of their key election platforms. Labour would abolish the pound by joining the euro, they claimed. But sterling would be safe with the Tories.

If this struck a chord with voters, they certainly did not show it at the polls. Instead, they returned Labour with a huge majority. So huge, in fact, that the Conservative leader, William Hague, felt obliged to resign his post.

The result is a complicated competition to find his replacement. Though it only began in June, it seems to have been going on forever.

It is a two-stage affair, with Tory MPs voting to establish a short-list of two, who must now submit to a second poll involving 300,000 party members across the country. The clear favourite, Michael Portillo, was bounced out of the race during the first vote, much to everyone's surprise, not least his own.

The two survivors are Kenneth Clarke, a former chancellor whom some call "the last big beast in the Tory jungle", and the then little-known Iain Duncan Smith. He is better known now. In a slow season for news, the media have been pouncing on every detail of the candidates' campaigns.

For a party whose disunity has been one of its principal problems, the contest has turned into remarkably hostile and dirty affair.

The defeated Portillo portrayed himself as the centrist, "unity" candidate. If you accept that, then Duncan Smith is the right-wing runner with Clarke out on the left.

Duncan Smith is a very traditional Tory. He is a former army captain, married to the daughter of a hereditary peer, with four children and something of a career in industry, property and defence publishing.

His father was a much-decorated pilot in the Second World War. Compare that with the fathers of all the other leaders since 1965 - carpenter, grocer, music hall entertainer and Yorkshire small businessman.

He is clearly decent and sincere. If he has a sense of humour, it is much less visibly on display than was the case with his predecessor, which may be no bad thing. Char-isma? Sadly, no. Nonetheless, he is popular with Tory activists and has the backing of Mrs Thatcher and William Hague, who share his right-wing instincts and eurosceptic views.

Those views may include quitting Europe altogether. Though he is back-pedalling now, claiming only to want "renegotiation" of the UK's position in Europe, he has advocated outright departure in the past.

Clarke, on the other hand, has stature and an easy, blokey sort of charm. He is almost certainly a more attractive figure to the population at large and is backed by former PM John Major as "infinitely the most experienced candidate."

He is an altogether milder Conservative than his opponent and, as such, more electable in future as a prime minister.

Yet his great flaw, as far as the party is concerned, is his enthusiasm for Europe and the euro.

He has tried to downplay this, arguing that Tories need to heal their wounds, and that he would not force his views on Europe on the party.

His opponents believe that those views would make it impossible for him to lead that party.

Duncan Smith has been having his own problems. Last week it emerged that a leading member of his campaign had close links with the extreme right-wing British National Party, best known for its racist attitudes. Duncan Smith responded by accusing Clarke of smear tactics.

The most lasting result of this open civil war may be that the Tories remain out of power for longer still.

Edward Russell-Walling is a UK-based journalist.