Tory chief whip David Maclean has thrown his weight behind the party leadership amid on-going internecine battles.

He said the party had to back Iain Duncan Smith or face the consequences.

Maclean has harsh words for Michael Portillo who on Friday mounted a scathing attack on his leader.

"It is selfish, destructive and it is not grown up opposition. This current argument is puerile and not worthy of us,'' he wrote in Monday's Telegraph newspaper.

"What a crazy time to raise the spectre of a leadership challenge. There is no messiah waiting in the wings who will command more support in the party than Iain.''

Over the weekend, Duncan Smith attempted to restore order to his beleaguered party after a week of Conservative bloodletting.

The Tory leader accused Michael Portillo of "self-indulgence" and "madness" as he sought to protect himself against talk of a coup when MPs return to Westminster this week.

Portillo last week used a radio interview to trigger speculation of a new leadership challenge before May's local elections.

It came after Duncan Smith's decision to sack two "modernising" senior party staff members during the parliamentary recess backfired.

Duncan Smith and his allies moved to discredit Portillo and play down the threat of a challenge.

Aides to the leader told a Sunday newspaper: "Iain regards what Portillo has done as self-indulgent to the point of madness. The idea that there should be an imminent leadership challenge is insane."

Duncan Smith himself went on the record to deny that the dispute was between "modernisers" - led by Portillo - and the "traditionalists".

"The conflict isn't between traditionalists and modernisers, but between those determined to face up to today's challenges and those who prefer the politics of division for division's sake," he told the Sunday Telegraph.

Duncan Smith's comments showed few signs of drawing a line under the affair, with one senior figure saying they "cannot be credible".John Bercow, an arch-moderniser who resigned from the shadow cabinet last year, said the actions of the leader's aides in briefing the press were "not helpful".

"When an adviser to the leader of the party is quoted in the Mail on Sunday as saying 'Iain's view is that he's going to give the bastards' - for which read Michael Portillo and friends - 'a good beating', that isn't serious language, that cannot be credible," he said.

Reports that another senior staff member is set lose his job in the bloodletting at Conservative Central Office also looks set to keep the row rumbling.

Stephen Gilbert, the head of the party's local government election campaign planning, is to leave his post on May 2.

"We've got to pull together," said Bercow. "But we've got to be given decisive, inspirational and reassuring leadership."

Tory London mayoral candidate Steven Norris said that Gilbert's departure would be "absolutely extraordinary".

Opposition MPs reconvene in Westminster at the start of a critical week for Duncan Smith's leadership.

The fallout from the past week's battles will become apparent with some MPs believing a challenge could be made immediately.

Derek Conway, thought to be a traditionalist supporter of deposed party chairman David Davis, said on Sunday that Duncan Smith could be in "very serious difficulty" if he mishandled the next few days.

"I think there is a hard-core of people who are prepared to sign [a motion of no confidence] now, and I think that hard-core will grow, as a result certainly of the last week, but if he's not very careful how he plays the next few days, we might be adding to that list," he said.

A leadership election can be triggered by 25 or more MPs putting their names to a no confidence motion. That would then lead to a ballot among all MPs before the party membership chose from the top two candidates.