Iain Duncan Smith will need to deploy his skills as both politician and soldier if he is to secure victory in the Tory leadership battle today.

The Chingford MP was the surprise victor of the 2001 Conservative Party leadership contest but has faced a series of crises since succeeding William Hague.

Whilst he managed to defeat Kenneth Clarke in the national poll, he mustered the support of just one in three of his MPs. And Duncan Smith now needs the support of 50 per cent of them if he is to keep the job.

From the day of his leadership victory, questions have been raised about Duncan Smith's ability to lead a party he did so much to undermine during the rebellions over the Maastricht Treaty.

The former soldier - who has also been an estate agent and defence analyst - joined the Conservative Party in 1981.

After unsuccessfully contesting the Bradford West seat in 1987, he was elected in 1992 to Chingford and Wood Green, the former constituency of Norman Tebbit.

It was Tebbit who later endorsed him for the party leadership - describing him as "a remarkably normal family man with children".

Duncan Smith's anti-Europe views, army career, war hero father and a wife from the landed gentry made him the ideal candidate for the party's grassroots.

Whilst many MPs have been unpersuaded of his merits as leader, Duncan Smith still appears to enjoy the support of the 300,000 Tory members.

The first Catholic leader of the Conservative Party, Duncan Smith has strong links to the Christian right.

And whilst he is rich in experiences outside Westminster, including a spell on the dole, he is also the least experienced Tory leader since Bonar Law.

He has no ministerial experience and has served only 11 years as an MP - a de facto member of the opposition for most of them.

Critics have claimed the self-styled "IDS" has little credibility when calling for loyalty after working tirelessly to oppose John Major's government.

Following his election, Duncan Smith said he would make up for his lack of political experience with a new determination to put his party back on the map.

"Whilst we did many good things, they [voters] do at the moment perceive us in the light of 1997 still and the objective is to break free from that and offer people a fresh start so we actually end up with a government that's relevant to them, and a party that is relevant to their interests, by saying that we can put the past behind us, learn from our mistakes and move on," he told this website.

But his first tactical mistake came in the summer of 2002 when he demoted party chairman and leadership rival David Davis, who was on holiday at the time.

It led to the crucial party conference in which Duncan Smith portrayed himself as "the quiet man".

Whilst his second speech was well received any gains were quickly wiped out as he struggled to make his mark at Westminster.

Imposing a three line whip over an obscure piece of gay rights legislation brought a small but high profile rebellion.

John Bercow, the Buckingham MP, resigned from the frontbench over the party's stance on gay adoption.

Eight Tory MPs voted against the party line while a further 35 abstained.

That led Duncan Smith to hold a press conference during which he famously called on colleagues to "unite or die".

In December last year former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine called on the Tories to choose Kenneth Clarke.

Without a change in leadership the party would not have "a ghost of a chance of winning at the next election", the former deputy prime minister said.

Later that month, biographer Michael Crick exposed flaws in the CV of a man who had pledged to be spin-free.

"Normally, with any politician, there's a glut of people who'll reminisce and provide juicy anecdotes. But, in this case, people simply don't remember him," said Crick.

The report questioned Duncan Smith's claims to have studied at the University of Perugia in Italy and Dunchurch College of Management.

Doubts also emerged about the Tory leader's exact identity - with Crick mockingly suggesting name was actually plain George Smith.

Conservative Central Office rejected the speculation by claiming that "even the most dedicated political anorak will find it hard to get excited about where Iain Duncan Smith took his Italian classes 30 years ago".

But this was not the last time that Duncan Smith was to hear from Crick, a tenacious hack with a reputation for Tory bating.

Parliamentary standards commissioner Philip Mawer is now examining allegations surrounding the employment of his wife, Betsy, as diary secretary.

Whilst many thought the timing of the story pointed to a smear campaign others saw it as evidence of Duncan Smith's lack of political judgement.

Other reports suggest his private office is in perpetual chaos and suggest IDS lacks the people skills to successfully manage a team.

Central Office has spent £500,000 in legal and associated costs in the regular purges of Tory aides.

But Duncan Smith's supporters will point to some notable successes during his time at the helm. The summer policy overhaul won plaudits from activists, MPs and the media.

Efforts to modernise candidate selection resulted in more women candidates and a greater number of PPCs from ethnic minorities.

And he eased the party's stance on homosexuality sufficiently that Alan Duncan felt he was able to come out as the first openly gay member of the Conservative frontbench.

The subsequent selection of both Asian and gay candidates was welcomed as a sign that the party had changed under his stewardship.

And the Conservatives also clamped down on links with the right-wing Monday Club following a row over its views on race and immigration issues.

It was a symbolic move for the man who had been embarrassed during the 2001 leadership election when it emerged that Edgar Griffin, a vice president of his campaign, had links with the far right British National Party.

It will be the future rather than the past, however, which could seal Duncan Smith's fate today.

MPs will have been asking themselves in recent days whether he is a man who could take on and beat Tony Blair at a general election.

That Duncan Smith is the younger of the two main parties leaders is a fact that, perhaps until the prime minister's recent heart scare, might have surprised voters looking for dynamic leadership.

There will also be questions over whether Duncan Smith will be able to do enough to snuff out a recent boost in support for Charles Kennedy's Liberal Democrats.

For the time being, however, the former soldier who served in Zimbabwe fights on and fights to win.

Whilst IDS is hanging on in there, his MPs may determine that someone else has better combat skills to take their party to the general election.