CONSERVATIVE leader Michael Howard will come out fighting for his political life today after a weekend of Tory turmoil.

He is expected to issue a "trust me" plea to voters in a keynote speech at the party conference.

Party activists will be looking for a convincing performance after it was revealed last night that only 12 per cent of the public think he will fulfill his ambition to become Prime Minister.

A BBC Newsnight/ICM poll found that 78 per cent of voters believe Mr Howard will never be Prime Minister. Even among Conservative supporters, the majority - 65 per cent - believe he will never make it to Number 10 Downing Street.

Worryingly for the Conservatives, it follows another poll that puts the Tories seven points behind Labour.

It means the Conservatives are in a worse position than a year ago, a month before Iain Duncan Smith was dumped by his own panicking MPs.

However, in his speech today, Mr Howard will seize on the public's loss of trust in Tony Blair and will pledge to rebuild faith in politics by sticking to a strict timetable for delivering promised policies with "no wriggle room".

And he will vow to sack Cabinet ministers who "screw up" - to apply the same rules to politicians as exist "in the real world".

Mr Howard's emphasis on trust follows the Prime Minister's acceptance, in his conference speech last week, that the Iraq invasion had dented people's faith in him.

Mr Blair apologised for intelligence on Saddam's weapons arsenal that turned out to be wrong -without apologising for the war itself.

Mr Howard will accept that the Conservatives have broken promises in office, by putting up taxes after pledging cuts at the 1992 election.

But he will insist politicians must no longer "live in a different world", with a Conservative government under his leadership the first to be properly held to account.

Mr Howard will say: "People are fed up with politics because politicians have let them down. Politicians, all politicians, have made prom-ises they have failed to keep.

"In 1992, we promised to cut taxes year on year. And what happened? We put them up.

"In 1997, Labour said there would be no tax increases at all. And what happen- ed? They put them up. Not once, not twice, but 66 times."

Mr Howard will insist the Tories' Timetable for Action, setting out what each minister will do in the first day, week and month in office, will break that mould.

It would explain "what we'll do, when we'll do it. Specific times, specific dates. No wriggle room. It will put us on the line in a way that no government has ever been before".

Mr Howard will add: "Everyone will be able to hold us to account. No dodgy facts and figures. We'll have no place to hide.

"I'll choose my Cabinet because I expect them to deliver. And if they don't, I'll replace them with people who will. People are fed up with talk. They want action."

Mr Howard was also expected to talk about his personal experience of the big rise in deaths from hospital infections, which claimed the life of his mother-in-law.

He will say more people die from infections picked up on the ward than die on Britain's roads, despite the billions spent on the NHS by Labour.

The only way to cut crime - the Conservatives' number one priority - is to "restore respect and decent values", he will say.

He will not, however, mention Hartlepool - the scene of last week's disastrous by-election, in which the Conservatives finished an unprecedented fourth.

This year, with a General Election probably just seven months away, the Tories know they are stuck with Mr Howard, crowned unopposed as the new leader.