British opposition leader loses vote of confidence

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, October 30, 2003

British opposition leader loses vote of confidence

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British largest opposition Conservatives leader Iain Duncan Smith lost a vote of confidence on Wednesday, sparking a new hunt for Tory leadership with eyes on next general election before the middle of 2006.

Duncan Smith, party leader for less than two years, was supported by 75 Tory lawmakers but opposed by 90.

Nominations opened immediately for a new leadership contest and will close on Nov. 6, Sir Michael Spicer, the chairman of the backbench 1922 committee said.

The first round of voting will be held on Nov. 11 but Duncan Smith will not be allowed to join the contest.

"I will stand down as leader when a successor has finally been chosen," Duncan Smith told reporters outside Conservative headquarters, giving his "deepest thanks" to colleagues and volunteers but most of all his wife, Betsy.

"I will not publicly choose between the candidates in the coming election... but I am going to defend the policies that my shadow cabinet have developed," he said.

"Although I will not be the prime minister of the first Conservative government of the 21st century, I believe I have provided its policy agenda," he said.

It is expected to take weeks, or perhaps months, before a new leader is elected by the party's rank and file across Britain.

The Conservatives dominated British politics in the last century but have twice been defeated by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Labor Party in the 1997 and 2001 general elections.

Since Margaret Thatcher's rule ended in 1991, the party has been riven by Factionalism.

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