Cameron: Policy warning

The man in charge of Tory policy has warned his party against "drowning in clear blue water" by focusing on Europe and a right-wing agenda.

Frontbencher David Cameron was sharing a platform with colleague John Redwood and former defence secretary Malcolm Rifkind at a fringe event at the Conservative conference on Monday.

Cameron, head of policy co-ordination, appeared cautious on any rightward shift from the Tories in response to the electoral threat of UKIP.

Cameron said he could sum up what he believed would be a winning Tory strategy in one sentence.

"We will win by emphasising Conservative values that the vast majority of people share, by turning them into policies and by showing how we would put them into action," he said.

In contrast with Redwood's comments, Cameron also said the Tories would not win if they campaigned negatively against political opponents or focused on Europe and "talk about it incessantly".

He also warned against a drift to the right saying the party should not "drown in deep blue water".

"We do have a vision for society, that we do have obligations to each other that we do have a net if people should fall that there is a we as well as a me," he said.

Redwood, who recently returned to the Tory frontbench as shadow deregulation secretary, turned his fire on UKIP and Labour.

He reiterated his strongly Eurosceptic credentials but attacked UKIP leadership challenger Robert Kilroy-Silk, who was not interested in "rescuing the country from Europe but killing the Tory party".

Rifkind's values

Rifkind, who is set to return to parliament as MP for the safe seat of Kensington and Chelsea, said that focusing on Tory values would bring back the voters.

Rifkind said that this would be vital in the run up to the election when the Labour Party would be "quite literally short of people campaigning on the streets for them".

He also derided the prime minister's decision to announce when he was standing down by quoting Winston Churchill: "In politics you shouldn't commit suicide because you might live to regret it."

However Rifkind said that despite having "strong policies" he was "under no illusions" about the task facing the Tories if they are to seriously challenge Blair's party.

"Our message has to be sharp, it has to be focused, and it has to be based on fundamental Tory values," he said.

"Radical Tory values, that as in 1979, sometimes you have to change things in a very significant way."

He said the party's priorities should be bringing prosperity to the 20 per cent of the population still in poverty, standing up for personal liberty, reducing taxation and reviving the roots of local democracy.

Rifkind concluded his remarks by saying that the Tories should not seek to take the centre ground but the "common ground with the majority of people" on immigration and Europe.