TORY party members were locked out of a meeting with leadership contender Iain Duncan Smith because the Devizes hall was so full.

More than 450 people flocked to the meeting at the Corn Exchange last Thursday to hear Mr Duncan Smith outline his vision for the Conservative Party, and to answer questions from the faithful who will be asked to choose between him and rival Kenneth Clarke.

Hundreds more had been told not to even bother turning up because of the level of interest.

The Devizes visit was part of a nationwide tour he is undertaking in the run-up to the leadership election.

Officials from the Devizes Conservative Association were staggered at the large number of people who attended and they ran out of chairs for people to sit on.

As well as party members from Devizes, people came from as far away as Dorset and Berkshire.

One man who travelled from Salisbury said he was unable to get into the meeting. Another member said the association should have hired a bigger hall.

Jerry Willmott, chairman of Devizes Conservative Association, said: "I fully understand the frustration felt by people who were turned away, particularly those who travelled a long way.

"We wrote to every member of the Devizes association that was eligible to vote in the leadership election and we also wrote to the chairmen of neighbouring Conservative associations to let them know of the meeting. We did send out a request with the invitations to let us know in advance if they were coming so we could reserve a ticket or tell them the tickets were exhausted."

In the run-up to the event, staff at the association's office in Marlborough said they had turned away more than 100 people when they phoned to find out if they would be able to get in.

Mr Willmott said the association had been unable to find a venue in the constituency bigger than the Corn Exchange.

He said: "I think the interest in the meeting was so huge because the timing of the leadership is so crucial. People are genuinely concerned to put the Conservative Party back in power and they want a leader to take us back to power."

Mr Willmott said the range of issues raised in the question and answer session of the meeting reflected the diverse interests of party members and it was not just the question of joining the European currency that dominated their minds.

He said: "People asked Iain Duncan Smith about the health service, Social Services, crime, pensions, political correctness, education and discipline.

"They were concerned about the inadequate funding of local government by central Government, quangos, cronyism and the deployment of our armed forces.

"They were extremely worried about the break-up of the United Kingdom and Europe was raised, but it was not a subject that occupied a lot of members' questions or Iain Duncan Smith's talk."

Mr Willmott believes the majority of members in the Devizes association will vote for Mr Duncan Smith rather than Mr Clarke. He said the association had invited Mr Clarke to speak in Devizes but he had indicated it did not fit in with his programme.

Mr Duncan Smith, who is being supported by Devizes MP and defeated leadership contender Michael Ancram, accepted he was the underdog in the leadership contest.

He added: "I am travelling around the country and I have come to Devizes to try and persuade people to vote for me and to tell them about the sort of party I want to lead.

"I recognise we must broaden out the issues that affect people in their daily lives such as education, health and the countryside which has suffered, particularly with the foot and mouth crisis."

When asked what role Mr Ancram would play in his Shadow Cabinet if elected as leader, Mr Duncan Smith said: "He will play a very important role in the whole of this organisation. It is something I have to discuss with him in due course."

Mr Ancram said while he was not a full-time member of Mr Duncan Smith's campaign team he will be supporting him at visits across the country and will be delivering speeches.