editorial comment Of course, that can is entitled to "have made mistakes" in his youth. As long as you don't get caught....... As for today's young people, well, it is unthinkable that they could have any kind of future if they were to smoke pot. They are not just as good as the Camerons of the world.....

David Cameron emerged unscathed from the first round of leadership hustings with Conservative MPs last night after Right-wingers backed away from putting him on the spot over whether he took drugs as a student.

His supporters had feared an "ambush" when he and the other three leadership candidates addressed a private meeting organised by the 92 Group of Right-wing, Euro-sceptic MPs.


Theresa May is backing David Cameron's leadership bid
Mr Cameron has sidestepped questions about whether he "smoked dope" at Oxford, saying there should not be "McCarthyite" inquisition of the candidates.

Last weekend, he told BBC1's Sunday AM: "I did a lot of things before I came into politics that I shouldn't have done," but stopped short of saying directly whether he had taken drugs.

Shortly before Mr Cameron addressed the group, Kenneth Clarke, the former Chancellor, was asked by Mark Pritchard, MP for The Wrekin and a David Davis supporter, whether he had ever taken hard drugs.

Mr Clarke made clear he did not believe such questions about private lives should be put to the candidates because it was a "tabloid sideshow".

But Mr Clarke, who freely admits to enjoying a drink and smoking cigars, added: "If anybody is interested I did not take cocaine."

Mr Pritchard was understood to have been preparing to put the same questions to the other three candidates - even though David Davis and Liam Fox have already denied ever taking drugs.

However, MPs claimed he had been persuaded to drop the subject, because they feared it could embarrass Mr Cameron and cause damaging headlines for the party. Angela Watkinson (Upminster) asked Mr Cameron a more general question about drugs policy, including the reclassification of cannabis - but did not press him on whether he had taken drugs.

Mr Cameron said the party should adopt a "realistic" approach based on science. He also advocated more treatment for drug offenders to give them a second chance.

There was relief in the Cameron camp that the drug question was not pursued. Four years ago, the campaign of another moderniser, Michael Portillo, was derailed when he was repeatedly challenged over his attitude to gay marriages and drugs.

Mr Clarke was said by MPs to have given an "entertaining and rumbustious" performance, but his supporters were involved in a propaganda battle with the Fox camp over who was more likely to be eliminated in the first round of voting on Tuesday.

The former Chancellor yesterday gained his first public backer from the latest intake of MPs - John Penrose, the MP for Weston-super-Mare - who said he had gone for a "big hitter who can take on Blair and Brown". The Cameron campaign, however, picked up momentum with three new backers, taking his declared tally of support to 32.

Theresa May, the former party chairman and arch-moderniser, said she was backing him. She was joined by Bernard Jenkin, the party's energy spokesman, and Douglas Carswell (Harwich), a member of the new intake.

Mr Davis said - in a dig at the younger Mr Cameron - he did not want to be "the heir to Blair, I want to be the successor to Brown".

Dr Fox will today tell a meeting organised by MPs' spouses that the party needs more women candidates. Nominations for the leadership close at noon today. The candidates will address all Tory MPs on Monday on the eve of the first ballot with a second ballot on Thursday. The result of a vote of all party members on a shortlist of two is due to be announced on Dec 6 or 7.

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