Senior Tories pile pressure on Cameron to chase core vote

David Cameron has a tough task ahead of him for this week’s Conservative conference – a task that got a little harder when Ed Miliband surprised almost everyone by producing a cracking speech this week. The Prime Minister has a number of problems to tackle when he arrives in Birmingham. These include a rowdy party growing increasingly agitated about a number of issues including Europe, a chief whip sent in to control said rowdy party whose authority has been undermined before he has even started twisting arms, a chancellor struggling with his own authority on economic policy, and a Mayor determined to steal the show with his own conference speech and his building campaign against Heathrow expansion.

Two senior Conservatives have helpfully dispensed some advice for the Prime Minister today about how he can pull the party back together. Former defence secretary Liam Fox has a piece in the Telegraph in which he tells Cameron that the party needs to ‘reconnect with our own supporters’.