Tory donor pleased by vote

A major Tory donor who had put pressure on the Tory leader to quit has welcomed the result.

Stewart Wheeler, who had earlier said there was an "overwhelming" case to oust Iain Duncan Smith, said he did not have a preference for a new leader.

Any one of half a dozen potential candidates could do "an excellent job", he told Sky News.

But Mr Wheeler, who donated £5 million to the Tories to fight the last election, said there was no reason for a leadership contest to "tear the party apart".

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, MP for Cotswold, said: "We need to thank Iain. He has done a great service to the party, bringing us from catastrophic defeat to level pegging with the government.

"It is now time to move on.

"I would like to see a coronation between Michael Howard and David Davis.

"I don't know if it is possible but I think that would be the best result so we do not have months of wrangling in the country."

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