WEST Dorset MP Oliver Letwin has admitted that the Tories may not win the next General Election.

The Shadow Home Secretary said that the Conservative Party was "nowhere near" regaining the trust of the public.

He said he did not know if it would be possible to do so in time for the next election, expected in 2005.

Mr Letwin said: "What most people want to know about an opposition - as and when they are not inclined to vote for the Government - is this: Are these people in whom you would safely put your trust to let them run the country?"

Asked whether the public was ready to offer the Tories their trust, he replied: "Nowhere near, nowhere near. We have a huge hill to climb. It is very large.

"We have to re-establish our credibility as an alternative government. That isn't something we are going to be able to do in a week or a month or a year. It's something we have to try and do over four years."

Asked whether that goal was achievable, he said: "I don't know. I hope it's do-able. We have to recognise that it's difficult. The outcome is not pre-ordained."

Mr Letwin declined to declare his loyalty to Mr Duncan Smith when asked whether two terms or a change in leadership might be needed for an election victory to be secured.

Instead, he responded: "None of us standing here today is in a position to know how far or how fast we will advance. What we are in a position to know, I hope, is what kind of self-restraint, self-discipline and leadership of purpose we need to engage in order to get there."

Mr Letwin admitted that he found the burden of combining his family and social life with the job to which he was appointed when Mr Duncan Smith became leader in September "on the verge of being too demanding".

While he would 'love' one of the major offices of state, he said he had "no ambitions" to seek the leadership for himself.

The West Dorset MP caused disarray in the Tory campaign for this year's election by saying that the party hoped eventually to cut taxes by as much as £20 billion. It blew a hole in leader William Hague's carefully costed £8 billion package of cuts and seemed to confirm Labour claims that public services would be slashed under the Conservatives.