Michael Howard has predicted that the Tories face a huge challenge against Labour at the next election.

The shadow chancellor, who is expected to be named as Conservative leader on Thursday, said his party had to recognise the scale of the task ahead.

"We know that we have got a long, hard slog ahead of us. No-one in the Conservative Party is under any illusions that it is going to be easy," he told GMTV.

"We have got a long, hard slog to convince the people of our country that we can serve them better than the present discredited government."

The comments came as the latest opinion poll found that support for the Conservatives had dropped since Iain Duncan Smith was removed last week.

According to the MORI poll for the Independent newspaper, Labour's lead has doubled since the Conservatives axed their leader.

Labour is unchanged on 38 per cent, the Tories down three points on 32 per cent and the Liberal Democrats up four points on 25 per cent.

Interviewed on Tuesday, Howard also accepted that he would have to do more to ensure he won the support of the public.

The former home secretary conceded that his reputation had been damaged by a failure to "win hearts and minds" during the 1990s.

"We didn't take people with us enough. I did not succeed enough in persuading people that I was doing the right thing, that it would lead to these results which is what people wanted," said Howard.

"So you try to learn from that. I think you learn, or I have tried to learn, that winning the argument doesn't necessarily mean that you win hearts and minds."

Howard is today urged, however, to focus on the issues rather than attempt to ape Tony Blair's style of politics.

Lord Saatchi, who was Margaret Thatcher's advertising adviser, says Howard must focus on policy and not personality.

"Nowadays, politics is often mistaken for a branch of showbusiness. But, in fact, as the Conservative Party knows, the winner in politics is the one with the best case, not the prettiest face," the Tory peer said in an article for the Daily Telegraph.

"Lawyers say that court battles are not often resolved by the physical beauty, or lack of it, of the participants.

"Apparently, they are usually settled by the perceived sincerity and conviction of the witnesses."