Dorrell and Clarke in deal to stop right wing

A pact between supporters of Stephen Dorrell and Kenneth Clarke was emerging last night to stop the frontrunners for the Conservative Party leadership, Michael Howard and William Hague.

The Dorrell supporters were privately working on a strategy of combining with the Clarke camp to maximise their support for the second ballot, although there was speculation at Westminster that Mr Dorrell may be forced to pull out, if he fails to win enough clear support for the first round.

He presented himself as a centre-right candidate yesterday but clearly staked out the middle ground in a letter to all Tory MPs, saying that he wanted to "rebuild the Conservative coalition" among business, farmers, nurses, teachers, savers, pensioners, and young mothers - all of whom were alienated to some degree during the 18 years of Tory rule.

Mr Hague tried put behind him the dithering over his aborted pact with Mr Howard and launched his own campaign for the leadership on the slogan "A fresh start". He underlined his youthful appeal - at 36 he is the youngest in the field - by hosting a breakfast press conference in the marble and glass atrium of a designer restaurant at Westminster.

The only one of the six contenders to appear with a specially designed platform, with "A fresh start" graphics, Mr Hague was supported by a handful of Tory MPs, including a member of the new intake, the journalist Julie Kirkbride. He shrugged aside suggestions that he was too young. "By my age, William Pitt was nearly on his death bed."

Accepting the blame for backing out of the deal with Mr Howard, under whom Mr Hague would have been deputy leader and chairman of the party, he said: "I thought on reflection ... that if I'm good enough to be offered those things, I'm good enough to stand as a leadership contender.

"I have been undecided at the weekend over whether to stand. It is a big step for someone of my age and my stage of life. I am 36 years old and getting married and so on ... But in the end I decided, given the number of people who have said to me `you must stand because you are our best hope of winning the next general election', that it was right to go ahead and do so." He is accused by the right of being John Major's heir apparent. One John Redwood supporter said: "He's John Major with a PPE degree."

If Mr Howard beats him for the leadership, Mr Hague may have an eye to replacing him after the next election. "The Conservative Party is unique in the ability to be ruthless with its leaders when it wants to be. That is one of the historic advantages of the Conservative Party," Mr Hague said. His campaign headquarters is temporarily based in the Westminster offices of Jonathan Sayeed, a re-elected Tory MP and businessman. His campaign manager is James Arbuthnot, a former defence minister.

He matched Mr Howard's pledge to oppose the European single currency, and mentioned the "M" word, for modernisation, but denied he was proposing to make the Tory party more Blairite. "We are living in a Conservative country that has temporarily got fed up with the Conservative Party. That is what we have to change and that means standing up for our traditional beliefs, our basic principles, something which is in tune with the country, but having a fresh start in communicating it."