Lord Tebbit

The row over Lord Tebbit's position in the Conservative Party has continued, with Michael Portillo saying that while the party has moved on it would be "mad" to expel the peer.

With Lord Tebbit publicly accusing a group of MPs and Conservative Central Office staffers of being behind a plot to oust him from the party in a bid to break its links with the past, the row has threatened to undermine the positive coverage generated by last week's Bournemouth conference.

But the peer has now received a measure of support from Michael Portillo, one of the party's leading modernisers.

The Kensington and Chelsea MP told BBC 1's Breakfast with Frost programme that there should be no question of Lord Tebbit losing the party whip, describing the possibility as "completely mad".

"Norman Tebbit is a major figure in the Conservative Party's history, he is a man who nearly died for the Conservative Party, and the idea that this man should be thrown out because he doesn't agree with what the Conservative Party has become is absurd," he said.

But Portillo made clear his support for party chairman Theresa May's message that Conservatives had to move on and shed their image as the "nasty party".

"The Conservative Party is becoming something different from what it was in Norman Tebbit's day - just as the Labour Party became something different from what it had been in Tony Benn's day.

"Tony Benn never left the Labour Party, no one threw Tony Benn out, but after a period of time, esteemed figure though he is, esteemed figure though Norman Tebbit is, over a period of time they become irrelevant to what their parties have evolved into being, into being something new.

"And as long as it is clear enough what the Conservative Party is it can withstand any amount of criticism from people who held high office before," said Portillo.

Tim Yeo, the shadow secretary for trade and industry, also told Lord Tebbit that the party had moved on.

"You have to say, 'I am sorry Norman but you have had your day. You are simply wrong'," he told the Sunday Telegraph.

"I think Norman has undoubtedly created irritation at all levels of the Conservative Party with his continued criticism."

And Portillo urged Iain Duncan Smith to focus on developing a clear sense of direction for the party.

"What I think is important now is that the direction of the party be established and the shadow cabinet be absolutely clear about it and they be united and that they move forward. It is what in Labour parlance would be called having a Project," he told the BBC.

"If that happens, if they are clear enough about their sense of direction then the voices on the side, whether it is Norman Tebbit, whether it is Kenneth Clarke, whether it is Ann Widdecombe, whoever it may be, will in due course become irrelevant to what the shadow cabinet, to what the new Conservative Party has become."

Portillo, who was knocked out of the party's leadership election by Duncan Smith, said he would not be seeking the leadership again.

"It is a decision I have reached, I have weighed the evidence as to whether it is a task I want to take on, I have weighed the evidence as to whether I think the Conservative Party would want to accept me, and I have weighed the evidence as to whether that is the sort of life that I want to take on.

"I have been in parliament 15 years on and off, I was in the Cabinet five years, I think I've really had enough of all that," he said.

But serving in a future Conservative government remained "a possibility".