Big thinking: IDS

The Conservatives will be the party of "big ideas" following a massive overhauling of its policies, according to its new leader.

Iain Duncan Smith announced on Sunday that he intends to carry out the biggest policy review of the Tory party since the 1970s saying the party thinkers have "got ourselves out of touch".

A new policy unit similar to the one in Number 10 had been created and based in the leader's office, he revealed. It will be aimed at re-engaging with leading thinkers who have moved closer to Labour.

"Those who say that we haven't recognised our defeat - quite wrong, I have," the Tory leader told BBC Radio 4. "And that is why I am setting up this huge policy renewal process. It can be argued that it's going to be the biggest that has taken place since, certainly since the 1970s."

The review and new unit will concentrate on what British people feel is going wrong in their lives - particularly regarding the issue of public services.

"What we have to recognise is that we just got ourselves out of touch with what the people out there think are the important issues in their lives. We are going to be the party of ideas. This is critical to us, like we were in the 70s and early 80s, we are going to reinvigorate ideas," Duncan Smith predicted.