And, in a stinging attack on those who briefed newspapers that he was lazy, opposed to modernising the party, a “square peg in a round hole” and had designs on the party leadership, he said: “Anyone who knows me will recognise that the orchestrated campaign of character assassination was a tissue of lies.”It was intended to harm me but the real victim has been the Conservative Party. The impression of unpleasantness and division has destroyed us in the past. Vendettas and character assassinations have wrecked the last three Conservative leaderships.”We cannot let this happen again It is time to draw a line under these things. That is what I intend to do and I will say nothing more about it.”Privately Mr Davis is livid about the way he has been treated. His first impulse on being demoted to shadow the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott – news he heard over the telephone while on holiday in Florida – was to resign.A friend said: “His dilemma was simple Resign and become a permanent focus for dissent or stay He didn’t want to be the new Michael Heseltine.

His heart was telling him to do one thing and his head told him to do the right thing.”But Mr Davis, who is determined to knuckle down to his new job when he returns to London tomorrow, privately admits it will not be easy.A friend said: “The problem for David is that he knows Iain Duncan Smith was briefing against him. When you have a party leader willing to engage in that sort of activity it is very difficult.”Mr Duncan Smith is thought to have been influenced by a number of Central Office aides, including his director of strategy, Dominic Cummings, who clashed with Mr Davis in June after the then party chairman publicly disowned his remarks that the Tories should not lead the anti-euro campaign because they were so unpopular. The relationship never recovered.Allies of Mr Davis said last night: “There is a Jo Moore figure in CCO who thinks he is above elected politicians and has taken it upon himself to poison Iain Duncan Smith’s mind against David Davis – and a very successful job he has done of it.”. Iain Duncan Smith last night tried to soothe anger within the Tory hierarchy by describing David Davis as “exactly the right man” to shadow John Prescott. He might as well have tried to damp down a house fire with a kiss. Now they face scrutiny over the ill will that festered just beneath the surface of the party’s public image and media reports of “Tory wars”.Rumours of the crumbling relationship between Mr Duncan Smith and Mr Davis surfaced just over a week ago in a series of reports criticising the then party chairman with what some of his supporters say was “a shocking level of vitriol”.Mr Davis, believed by some to covet the Tory leadership, was accused of remaining silent when Duncan Smith was under fire.

He is also accused of laziness and of not taking a more proactive role in getting women, gays and ethnic minority members selected as Tory parliamentary candidates.While he enjoyed a holiday in Florida, powerful forces were moving against him. He was unceremoniously demoted to shadow John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister Theresa May was told she would step up to be party chairman. Mr Davis was told his fate over the telephone; one party insider said this “smacked of cowardice”.Mr Duncan Smith’s decision is said to have been influenced by aparatchiks at the Tories’ headquarters in Smith Square, central London. They were supporters of the former minister and leadership challenger Michael Portillo bent on getting rid of Mr Davis, it is claimed.Friends of Mr Davis predict Mr Duncan Smith himself will be the next target. Central Office was “pouring poison” into Mr Duncan Smith’s ear.