IN her two years as William Hague's press secretary Amanda Patell failed to undermine Labour's election prospects.

In the space of a 45-minute TV programme last night she effectively wrecked the chances of Michael Portillo ever leading the Conservative Party.

Rightly or wrong, Ms Platell's video diary cast grave doubts on Mr Portillo's loyalty to Mr Hague.

The one thing Tories find difficult to tolerate is disloyalty and betrayal. It is a damaging accusation from which he will find it difficult to recover.

Iain Duncan Smith has run a canny and effective campaign, and looks likely to win tomorrow's crucial ballot of Conservative MPs.

Despite Mr Portillo's victory in the first two rounds, it is by no means certain that he will finish second in the ballot and thereby ensure that his name goes before the party's rank-and-file membership.

It promises to be a close call between Mr Portillo and Mr Clarke.

But whoever is the second name on the ballot paper, he faces almost certain eventual defeat at the hands of Mr Duncan Smith.

Mr Clarke remains the most effective politician within Conservative ranks. He is the only one with the personality, the experience and the popularity to restore the party's electoral fortunes. But his staunchly pro-European views means he will struggle to attract sufficient support from an essentially Euro-sceptic membership.

Mr Portillo's popularity within the party at large has already suffered following his admission of homosexual experiences as a student. Allegations of disloyalty to Mr Hague threaten to destroy any support base he had.

The way is clear for Mr Duncan Smith to seize control of the party; not necessarily because of his own attributes, but largely because of Mr Clarke's policies and Mr Portillo's past.

Over the next four years the Conservative Party needs to galavanise around a leadership and a clearly defined programme of policies if it is to mount an effective challenge to Labour and avoid a third successive humiliating election defeat.

We doubt the wisdom of leaving such daunting task to a relatively inexperienced politician with a low public profile.