A key aide to Iain Duncan Smith has called on supporters to "praise God" each Monday for the party leader's work.

In a series of Conservative prayers for each day of the week, posted on an official Conservative website, Duncan Smith's new political secretary, Tim Montgomerie, asks party loyalists to pray for their leader.

"Pray that IDS will have sufficient time to think and rest," he writes.

"Pray that Iain Duncan Smith's commitment to keep the media's prying eyes from his children's lives will be successful. Pray, in particular, that Sundays will be kept as free as possible for family time."

Montgomerie posted the prayers on the internet before taking up his post at Central Office.