The press is taking sides in the battle for the future of the Conservatives.

The Murdoch newspapers back Iain Duncan Smith, with the Times arguing that Kenneth Clarke is out of touch with the rest of the party on the euro and European federalism.

"Clarke is out of tune with his party and with the country on European federalism. His instinctive support for so much of the continental consensus would make it almost impossible to maintain any sort of party unity," argues a leading article.

But its endorsement of Duncan Smith under the banner of "Better a leap into the dark than sure destruction" is hardly a ringing one.

"It is hard to be hopeful and impossible to be certain about Mr Duncan Smith's leadership potential. About Mr Clarke it is possible to be certain. Conservatives would be wise to turn conventional wisdom on its head, and gamble that for the party and for the country, "the devil you do not know" is the better choice this time," the leader concludes.

The paper that once boasted "It's the Sun wot won it" for John Major in 1992 reassures a Tory party decimated twice at the polls that "There's hope". The paper says "people will vote Tory, one day".

"But first the Tories have to keep themselves alive...And that means electing Iain Duncan Smith, who unlike Kenneth Clarke, is actually a Tory," the Sun adds.

Clarke receives the backing of the Mail with a front page editorial calling time on the "insanity" over Europe and arguing that "the fact is the Tories must not make the mistake again of opting for an inexperienced unknown - a mistake they have already made twice before."

"Today, the ineluctable fact is that the Tory party - which once stood for economic and political realism - is so obsessed with Europe that if it chose the wrong leader again, it risks the very real possibility of political extinction," the editor writes.

Maintaining both its "implacable" defence of the pound and enduring "reverence" for Margaret Thatcher, the Mail opts for Clarke as the "big man" who will "contrast attractively with Mr Blair's youth, his spin doctored image and policies that are driven by focus groups".

"This paper has great faith in the common sense of Tory members and their desire to see their party survive which is why we endorse Kenneth Clarke," the Mail says.