SENIOR Conservatives hoping to replace William Hague were playing their cards close to their chest last night with only shadow home secretary Ann Widdecombe indicating she was considering entering the contest.

Meanwhile, Mr Hague had gone to ground as the fight to replace him as leader intensified.

Sources in Mr Hague's Richmond constituency, in North Yorkshire, said he was taking a break away from politics with his wife, Ffion, although they would not elaborate on his whereabouts.

As several leading Tories took soundings from colleagues on their chances of mounting a successful bid, bookies' favourite Michael Portillo remained out of the fray, holidaying in Morocco.

Suggestions that Mr Portillo was dithering over whether to stand were dismissed by his close ally Francis Maude, who did not rule out a leadership bid.

But Miss Widdecombe appeared to take a dig at Mr Portillo for his decision to maintain a period of post-election silence. She told BBC1's Breakfast with Frost: "I don't think we should all go away and hide because we are afraid of being asked questions about the leadership."

Miss Widdecombe said she had not yet decided whether to stand for leader.

"There are quite a lot of people who would like me to run," she said.

"That doesn't mean I can just jump in. I have got to take soundings to see how wide the support is and consider what I have got to offer."

Shadow foreign secretary Francis Maude denied there were "Machiavellian power plays" among the party's senior ranks over who would be the next leader.

But in what appeared to be a veiled criticism of Miss Widdecombe, he said that leadership contenders should not be jockeying for position so soon after the election defeat.

He denied Mr Portillo - who held back from a leadership challenge against John Major in 1995 - was dithering over whether to enter the race.

Mr Maude said: "There is no question of dithering. What we are all doing is thinking about the party. No one at this stage should be thinking about their own personal position."

Miss Widdecombe held out an olive-branch to Kenneth Clarke by indicating that she would want a "broad-based" shadow cabinet in which the voice of pro-European Tories would be heard.

But she said she would keep the party's opposition to the single currency, saying: "I think we were utterly right to take that stand and I do maintain that stand."

The so-called big beasts of the Tory centre-left, Michael Heseltine and Chris Patten, made clear their belief that the party's fortunes would revive only with Mr Clarke playing a leading role as a shadow cabinet member or leader.

"Ken Clarke is the most popular Conservative in the country," the recently-ennobled Mr Heseltine said.

"He has all the qualities that are needed, except the fact that the party has got this mental blockage of putting Europe at the top end of the political spectrum, which is completely in contrast to the way the public think about it."

Mr Patten told Breakfast with Frost: "A successful Conservative Party has to be able to accommodate the views of Michael Portillo and Kenneth Clarke. It has got to be a broad church, not a narrow sect."