Senior Conservatives will lead a recruitment drive in Britain's universities this autumn in a bid to secure the votes of a new generation of young professionals.

David Davis. former party chairman, will spearhead the campaign.

Disgruntled MPs dismayed at the poor opinion poll performance by Iain Duncan Smith are giving the Conservative leader until May to improve, report some newspapers.

A former Conservative adviser has claimed Duncan Smith has tried to imitate Labour, rather than build on the party's core principles.

Shadow education secretary and a leading figure on the modernising wing of the party, Damian Green, yesterday hit back at reports that up to 50 centre-left young Tories were considering breaking away from the Conservative Party.

"Anyone who shares moderate mainstream conservative philosophies is now not just at home in the Conservative Party, but actually represents the main thrust of Conservative policy," he said.

"Instead of doing some of the things we have done in the past which we have done wrong, we are now actually addressing the real issues that matter to the British people."