York-born politician David Davis today tried to distance himself from Lady Thatcher.

Mr Davis, a contender in the Conservative leadership stakes, who is a favourite of the former Prime Minister, said the party had to look to the future.

He said: "First-time voters at the next election will have been

two years old when Margaret Thatcher left office.

"They are unlikely to be impressed by a Conservative party that is still arguing about her inheritance, still looking backwards, still offering opposition of the moment rather than a programme of office.

"Only when we begin to talk about the issues that matter to people, and offer the hope of genuine change, will we win back the trust and respect of a lost generation of voters."

Mr Davis's comments were made in the Spectator magazine. The leadership contender, who was brought up in the Walmgate area of York, is promising to re-unite the Conservative Party.

In the article, he wrote: "We will need to harness the talents of every one of our 166 members of Parliament, and that means working together again.

"Factionalism in the party has not only damaged our public reputation; it has had the equally corrosive effect of freezing our collective thinking about applying Conservative principals to modern problems.

"It does not make sense to exclude people whose talents we will need in a dynamic shadow administration simply because they have a different view on a unique issue - the euro, which in any case will be settled by a referendum."

Updated: 12:00 Thursday, June 21, 2001