Lord Saatchi

Leading Conservatives have called for "vision and purpose" from whoever is elected as their new leader.

In carefully coded attacks on the party's election strategy, senior figures such as co-chairman Lord Saatchi and shadow Cabinet member David Willets said the Tories needed a more optimistic outlook.

With retiring leader Michael Howard having focussed on five core grievances against the government, as advised by Australian strategist Lynton Crosby, the party made limited gains in terms of MPs but little progress on their share of the vote.

The tactic was implicitly criticised for failing to reach out beyond core Conservatives voters, with Lord Saatchi saying the public did not know what the party stood for.

"The most telling statistic I can put to you is the finding that 70 per cent, a huge majority, of the population, agree with the statement 'It is hard to know exactly what the Conservatives stand for these days'," he told BBC1's Breakfast with Frost on Sunday.

"This is a big problem because, as I see it, in all forms of competitive human activity - whether it is in politics or in business or in war - a clear sense of purpose seems to be the prerequisite for success."

"This for the Conservative Party is essential and this is what I am sure we will do," he added.

"I would like to make sure, to whatever extent I can, Michael Howard's legacy, what he has left us with - which is a position of hugely improved strength - is not squandered and wasted.

"And in order for that to be true what I'm suggesting is that clarity of purpose is essential."

'Tragedy'

Earlier he had written in the Sunday Telegraph: "The lesson of the campaign we have just fought is that the mere promise of efficiency is not enough to persuade people that you would be an efficient government.

"Mere anger at the problems of the world we live in is not enough to convince the voters that the Conservative Party is fit to solve them."

The advertising executive described the campaign as a "tragedy of failed communication".

The peer was thought to have wanted to offer wider tax cuts than the Tories' limited £4bn offer to the electorate.

Meanwhile shadow work and pensions secretary David Willetts echoed much of Lord Saatchi's analysis, but said the Conservatives should do more to address social
problems.

However he agreed that the party should project a greater sense of direction.

The former party policy coordinator is one of the Tories' senior intellectuals who's support will be courted in the leadership poll.

He told the BBC: "What happened was we were so pre-occupied with solving Britain's economic problems that we forgot about the other half of Conservatism.

"We have got to show that we understand values that are not economic because if I was saying the biggest challenge facing Britain today it is that we are not a strong society.

"We do need vigorous, lively economic reform but there is the other half. We can't talk about cutting back the supply of government without thinking of why there is such a heavy demand for government and that is because there are so fragmented families, that society is so weak that people inevitably find themselves turning to government."

Tax

Tories must "break free" from the arguments over tax cuts, Willetts said.

"I don't want a leadership contest that gets bogged down in personalities and factions.

"I think it is the opportunity for the Conservative Party to think clearly and rigorously about how it tackles the problems of 21st century Britain and what it offers."

He added: "I think we are in a better environment than we have been in the past eight years because Michael Howard, to his enormous credit, has given the party unity and discipline. We now need vision and purpose."