Shadow chancellor Michael Howard has dismissed claims that a Conservative government would cut taxes.

"I would love to be able to cut taxes but I cannot say to you today - two years before the next election - what we will do," he said in a weekend newspaper interview.

"I don't know what the economic circumstances will be and cannot say for certain we will cut taxes in the first budget or the second."

The comments will be a blow to some leading Tories who have already committed the party to tax cuts in the event of securing government.

In an interview this weekend, the former home secretary also rejected calls by "Portillistas" to reinvent the party.

In a speech to the Social Market Foundation on Monday, Howard is expected to call for an extension of market solutions based on individual choice and competition to improve public services.

However, his comments come as further feuding within Conservative Central Office is revealed.

The party's new chief executive Barry Legg is said to be "considering his future" after a board ruling that he could not have full executive powers.

The ruling means that officials will report not to him but to modernising chairman, Theresa May.