Conservatives are not "spouting baloney" but talking about the things people themselves are concerned with, said Michael Ancram.

The Tory deputy leader responded on Thursday to a right wing think tank's claim that Iain Duncan Smith had ditched Tory principles for "phoney baloney".

Former special adviser to Norman Lamont, Rupert Darwall, warns Central Office that "an issueless party is frankly an irrelevant one".

"The problem the Conservative Party has is its spouting baloney," he told the BBC.

"You've heard them. They say 'we're passionate about public services, we care about the vulnerable', that doesn't mean anything to anyone."

"People sense that's phoney, is just mood music. What people want to know is where the party stands."

Ancram dismissed the attack saying that under Iain Duncan Smith Conservatives were "talking about the things people themselves are talking about".

"We're talking about the health service, we're talking about education, we're talking about law and order, we're talking about pensions.

"I myself am talking about Europe, I'm talking about matters like Gibraltar and Zimbabwe, issues of public concern," he told the Today programme.

"These are things that people are actually concerned about themselves. This isn't about centre ground, its about actually talking about what ordinary people are talking about."

Citing true blue Tory principles like belief in Britain - "something this government seems to have totally forgotten about" - Ancram insisted that clear principles just need time to become clear policies.

"These are clear Conservative principles, what we're are going to do is articulate the policies over the next two to three years in a way that people can have trust in that something that can not be done over night, we have to work slowly and steadily towards it."

"We have got to show we have done the work, done the ground work, done the home work, and we can be trusted and if it takes a little time, it is worth it," he said.

Darwell's Centre for Policy Studies pamphlet warns that traditional Tories must guard against "modernisers" who are seeking to remodel the party in Labour's image.

Attempts to make the Conservatives appear inclusive will badly backfire on Iain Duncan Smith, cautions the author.

"Far from the Conservative crisis being caused by the redundancy of its principles, the root of its difficulties lie in their neglect,'' says Darwall.

"Arguments that the Conservatives should move to the centre, in a mirror image of New Labour, would finally destroy the party's chance of restoring its credibility.

"Instead it should explain to the electorate why tax and spend will fail to deliver."

He adds that "a Vichy response to Blairism" would form no basis as a launch pad to a Tory recovery.

"The cause of the Conservatives' unpopularity, of the lack of respect for the party, is not any lurch to the right but a dislocation between its policies and principles," says Darwall.

The latest row comes amid growing unease at the direction of policy under Duncan Smith.

A number of Tory MPs are said to be alarmed that the party is failing to recover in the polls under the new leadership.

The decision to sack David Davis and replace him with Theresa May added to a sense of backbench unease.

Few MPs are said to believe that he will be able to turn round the party's poor ratings in time to score a victory at the next general election.

Reports suggest that MPs and senior party figures are reserving judgement on his leadership until early next year.

Party insiders have warned, however, that his job will be on the line unless clear evidence of progress is made well ahead of the election.