Tories have been forced to deny reports that Iain Duncan Smith was to take a back seat in the fight to save the pound.

Conservative chairman David Davis took to the airwaves yesterday to pledge Tories to the "front line" of the battle against the euro.

Red-faced Central Office officials moved to dismiss comments by the Conservative leader's chief tactician that a prominent role in the No campaign could turn-off support for sterling.

Dominic Cumming, had told the Independent: "The biggest potential threat to the pound's survival is the Conservative Party."

Davis said that Cummings had got it "plumb wrong".

"If the government has the guts to call a referendum on this subject, then the Conservative Party will be at the forefront of that. Iain Duncan Smith will be at the forefront of it. What is interpreted here is just plumb wrong," he told the BBC.