Witney MP David Cameron is now odds-on favourite to win the Conservative Party leadership race.

Mr Cameron, who is 39 on October 9, has seen his odds slashed from 12-1 to 4/5 in the space of a week thanks to an enormously successful party conference in Blackpool.

After all the candidates jockeyed for position during conference week Mr Cameron now has his nose in front and is ahead of his rivals -- 15/8 shot David Davis, 11/2 rated Ken Clarke, 9/1 backed Liam Fox and 80/1 outsider Malcolm Rifkind -- with just a few furlongs left in the race.

The 200-or so Tory MPs start voting next month with the candidate with the least number of votes dropping out each round until there are just two left.

The final two then go head-to- head in a ballot of the party's 300,000 members with a winner set to be announced in early December. Former favourite David Davis lost ground because of his unspectacular platform speech and failure to capture the imagination of activists.

On the other hand Mr Cameron -- labelled the "Coca Cola kid" because he claims to be the Real Thing -- spoke without notes and generated a notable fizz among delegates.

He told the Oxford Mail: "I am not paying any attention to bookmakers' odds because it's a long race, but I am delighted that we have started something and that momentum has grown since my speech."

And he went a long way to dismissing the stereotypical stuffy Tory image by hinting he may have experimented with cannabis while studying at Oxford University.

When asked whether he had dabbled in drugs, he said: "I had a unique university experience, let me put it like that, but I am too much of a politician to tell you what it is."

He now has the public support of 25 MPs including Oxfordshire's Tony Baldry, Ed Vaizey and Boris Johnson and shadow transport secretary Alan Duncan who has defected from the Davis camp.

Although this is well behind the 66 that Davis supporters claim to have, many more MPs have yet to declare. In any event, Mr Cameron should have enough support by the time of the first vote make it to the final round.

A spokesman for bookmakers' Ladbrokes said: "It looks like it's going to be a two-horse race between Cameron and Davis because there is a clear amount of daylight between them and their nearest contenders. Anyone else winning this race would be a surprise."