SHADOW Chancellor Oliver Letwin told supporters in Knutsford on Friday of the wave of optimism now sweeping the Tory Party.

He said Michael Howard's appointment as leader had given the Conservatives renewed hope.

"Our party has been dismissed for a while because it has not been sufficiently unified to mount a sustained critique of Labour, but that has changed," he said.

"The nation is now ready for opposition and in a way it wasn't in 1997 because it didn't want to hear from us."

During his visit to Knutsford he went on the offensive, criticising Labour for ruining the work done by the Tories during their 18 years in power.

"We did leave Gordon (Brown) with a remarkable inheritance," he said.

"If we do get elected we are going to have to put right what he has undermined."

Michael Howard promoted Mr Letwin to Shadow Chancellor after he was chosen by MPs to replace Iain Duncan Smith in a bloodless leadership coup.

On Friday Mr Letwin, a former Shadow Home Secretary, addressed a delegation of more than 100 Tatton Tories at The Cottons Hotel in Manchester Road.

On Monday Tatton MP George Osborne, who is a member of Mr Letwin's treasury team, said there were now new members among the old faces.

"Oliver Letwin said he was used to addressing downbeat audiences so Friday was a very new experience for him because the mood was so upbeat," he said.