David Cameron smiles with his wife, Samantha, after being named the new leader of Britain's Conservative party at the Royal Academy in London yesterday. - REUTERS
LONDON (Reuters):
BRITAIN'S OPPOSITION Conservatives chose David Cameron as their new leader yesterday, opting for youth to revive their fortunes and challenge Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The centre-right party, which dominated 20th century British politics, has struggled to drag itself out of the wilderness after losing three successive elections to the Labour party.
Cameron, 39, is the fifth Conservative leader in eight years but there is new hope in the party as Labour's popularity wanes, Blair has said he will not fight a fourth election and his likely successor is finance minister Gordon Brown.
Supporters believe Cameron can widen the party's appeal to voters in the centre ground in the way Blair revamped his Labour party in the 1990s.
Labour's parliamentary majority was more than halved at a May poll, largely because of public anger over the Iraq war.
OVERWHELMING DEFEAT
Cameron overwhelmingly beat David Davis, the party's experienced home affairs spokesman and a right-winger, winning 68 per cent of nearly 200,000 votes cast by party members.
His aides said the scale of the result would give him the authority to stamp his "modernising" blueprint on the party.
"I want us to give to this country a modern, compassionate Conservatism that is right for our times," Cameron told a party gathering after the result was announced.
He pledged to boost the number of women in the party and embrace inner-city communities that have never supported the Conservatives.
"Now that I have won, we will change," Cameron said.
BOOKIES LIKE CAMERON
Bookmakers Coral cut the odds on the Conservatives under Cameron winning the next election.
"We have been waiting for 10 years but at last we have a proper contest between the two major political parties," Coral spokesman Simon Clare said.
With Blair's days numbered, the conservatives also focusing their fire on Brown who they see as vulnerable because he will pursue more traditional left-wing policies.
Although Brown boasts a sound record in managing the world's fourth biggest economy since 1997, he was forced on Monday to cut his economic growth forecasts.
But the finance minister said he had no intention of abandoning Blair's centrist policies, including public service reforms which state employees find painful.
Blair and Brown are seen as Britain's toughest political operators and will aim to rough Cameron up, starting with his debut at prime minister's questions in parliament on Wednesday.
Brown said Cameron -- who is 15 years younger -- represented the "same old Conservative party".
"What we have got here is simply a rebranding of an old policy with a new gloss on it ... which is cuts in public spending," he said.
Cameron is vague on policy detail but has said he would share the proceeds of economic growth between public service spending and tax cuts.
Derided by some as too posh, he has emphasised the caring side of Conservatism and has pledged to support Labour on policies with which he agrees while his eurosceptic views have won him popularity in his party.
