The Tories may have not won the war, but early today battered troops maintained their belief in the leadership.

Michael Portillo and Kenneth Clarke, William Hague's principal rivals for the top job, insisted it was premature to start talking about leadership contests - but both predicted he would continue as leader.

Ex-Chancellor Kenneth Clarke, said: "William will carry on in his job is my personal prediction. But I don't think it's sensible at all to talk about these things."

Shadow Chancellor Michael Portillo cautioned against assumptions that Mr Hague's position would be under threat, saying: "I would very much hope that, whatever happens, he will continue as leader.

"I think it would be a grave error for anyone this evening to start leaping to conclusions."

Another Tory heavyweight, Shadow Home Secretary Ann Widdecombe, praised Mr Hague. She said: "As far as I'm concerned, William has been an excellent leader. He's a staying leader."

There was support too from former Cabinet minister Lord Tebbit, who urged Mr Hague to stay on, whatever the outcome.

"I certainly don't think that he should walk away from it, either now or tomorrow morning," he said.

"The whole party needs to sit down and think about the election, think about the next election too.

"There's a very good chance the party will decide they would rather like to keep William."

As for Mr Hague himself, Tory officials said he was "very optimistic and upbeat" about the election.

Others in the party avoided giving a direct answer to the Hague question.

Sir Archie Hamilton, former chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs and an ex-minister, responded to a question about Mr Hague's position by saying: "I'm quite convinced that people feel he has fought a very good campaign."

The party's fortunes for the night were described by former Tory frontbencher John Maples as "very, very disappointing" if the exit polls were right.

He said it would be an "awful result" for the Tories.

The view from outside the party was understandably different. Former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Paddy Ashdown said he did not think Mr Hague would survive as leader if the Tories failed to make ground on Labour.

He told Sky News: "For the sake of the Tory Party, if nothing else, I think the long journey through the deserts of the extreme led by Master William Hague and his rather starless camel . . . will have to end and the party will have to come back to the centre right ground, where it will again be able to put itself forward as a possible government."

Asked what he had thought had gone wrong for the Tories, Lord Tebbit, paraphrasing a famous quotation, said: "What went wrong was the economy, stupid.

"People on the whole are doing pretty well at the moment. The top rate of tax hasn't gone up and the middle classes have done very nicely."

Tory party chairman Michael Ancram remained upbeat about the Conservatives' election strategy.

"In the end, election results are election results. They do not change the truths of what's important in this country."

He said he was "very proud" of the way the party had performed during the election fray, despite pessimism by the media. "We've campaigned on those things that we believe people were interested in."

Shadow leader of the Lords, Lord Strathclyde, said the failure to regain Torbay was a disappointment but insisted that Labour's share of the vote had plummeted.

Read more about the Election here.