Iain Duncan Smith has used an appearance on Desert Island Discs to repeat his determination to stick to his guns.

The Conservative leader told the programme that he had inherited his resolution from his second world war fighter ace father.

"You make your mind up, you must stick to it and you must back your judgment," he told the programme's presenter, Sue Lawley.

"Sometimes you get it right and sometimes you get it wrong but the key thing is you mustn't go halfway through and then doubt."

"Doubt is the end for any decision."

But the Battle of Britain hero was not overly impressed by his son's decision to go into politics.

"I would be a liar if I said that he wasn't disappointed by the idea of me entering into politics, not in a bad sense," he said.

"His view was that the people that did things were the people that either worked or that were in the army, went into difficult situations and led. His view about politicians generally was that there was too much mess and compromise."

The Chingford MP joined a long list of the great and good on Sunday by appearing on Radio 4's long-running programme.

And he took the chance of distancing himself from his self styled "quite man" image.

"I'm not quite that quiet," revealed the Conservative leader.

"The point about the quiet man point was it was really about the resolution and the fact that people who shout a lot and who say a lot of things don't often do them."

"I think the important thing that I was trying to get across was if I say I intend to do something, then I'll do it."

Choosing eight records, a luxury and a book that he would take if marooned on a desert island, Duncan Smith ignored Commons advice on his musical selection from Tony Blair.

During Queen's Speech exchanges and amid Tory in-fighting, the prime minister suggested a number of songs that might be appropriate for a beleaguered Duncan Smith.

"I thought that we could help with one or two choices of music.

"For example, everyone chooses a Beatles song - my honourable friends are unkindly suggesting 'Help!'," said Blair.

"I do not know whether the right honourable gentleman's honourable friends have any messages for him, but perhaps they would suggest 'Hello, Goodbye' - 'You say hello and we say goodbye'."

Steering a careful course away from any songs that could be subject to double meaning, Duncan Smith's first record choice was the final act of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.

Other tracks included Puccini's "One Fine Day from Madam Butterfly", "Benedictus From Requiem in D Minor" by Mozart, Charles Aznavour's torch song classic "She", dedicated to his wife Betsy, Bruce Springsteen's "City of Ruins", Jerry Lee Lewis's "Great Balls of Fire" and finishing with "My Baby Just Cares For Me" by Nina Simone.