The Conservatives in Arundel and South Downs have selected a radical Tory thinker as successor for deposed MP Howard Flight.

Flight was sacked by the party leadership after he claimed the Tories were planning bigger cuts in public spending than suggested.

But there is fresh controversy after it emerged that think tank chief Nick Herbert, who was selected last night, has voiced similar views in the past.

In November 2002, Herbert wrote in the Spectator: "The whisper is that there is a top secret, extremely clever strategy afoot: go along with spending rises now, but return to a tax cutting agenda when - if - the party is re-elected."

He denied that he was supportive of further cuts in spending should Michael Howard win the election.

"In that Spectator article I was warning the party against a strategy which quite rightly was never adopted," he said.