What if Ken Clarke was elected Conservative leader in 1997?

What if Ken Clarke was elected leader of the UK Conservative Party after their landslide defeat in 1997? Would he be able to hold the party together, or would his pro-Europe position cause a split? What would be the effects? What if?
 
Any ideas? I think that Clarke could lead to a split in the party, maybe UKIP rises to prominence earlier or some new party. This could either lead to a bigger Blair majority in 2001, which could last at least a decade. Or this new party might even replace the Tories. OTOh, if Clarke plays his cards right and avoids alienating too many people( seems unlikely) then he could hold the party together and get Blair below 400 seats in 2001 and pave the way for a hung parliament in 2005, Tory minority in 2006, or other butterflies... What do you think?
 
Any ideas? I think that Clarke could lead to a split in the party, maybe UKIP rises to prominence earlier or some new party. This could either lead to a bigger Blair majority in 2001, which could last at least a decade. Or this new party might even replace the Tories. OTOh, if Clarke plays his cards right and avoids alienating too many people( seems unlikely) then he could hold the party together and get Blair below 400 seats in 2001 and pave the way for a hung parliament in 2005, Tory minority in 2006, or other butterflies... What do you think?
I think that a Eurosceptic breakaway is unlikely at this point. Past lessons of the SDP and the Referendum party, which would have only been a few years back then, are likely to discourage Tory MPs. If there were a split in the Tory vote, that would likely benefit neither party, instead you would likely have an even larger Labour party and the Lib Dems pressing to become the main opposition.
Not only that, but the Tory party membership was mainly eurosceptic at that point, at least that is what I presume, giving how they elected IDS in 2001. So new MPs are likely to be mainly eurosceptics. That means that faction of the party has time on its side. It can just wait till they are in the majority of the Parliamentary party, and then they will have control. Or if Clarke brings in reforms to the leadership contest as Hague did to put more power in the hands of the membership, they will likely win the leadership next time around. If he does that, we might even see Clarke challenged in the middle of his term by the eurosceptic wing, similar to what Tony Benn did to Denis Healey after membership were given the vote in the Labour party. That would probably be the nightmare scenario for them.
I think that if Clarke were leader, and he made it through a full term, the result in 2001 would not change a great deal. On one hand, more infighting could put even more voters off them, and they could lose a few more seats to Labour, but not that many, seeing as they were at rock bottom in 1997 anyway. On the other, Clarke was popular with the electorate, and him leading the fight against the right of his party may boost his personal popularity even more. People would still be put off by the infighting, but his personal popularity could see them make very small gains over OTL, maybe gaining 20 seats max. Either way it would be a disappointing outcome, and given the ruthlessness of the Tories with there leaders at this time, Clarke would be straight out of the door, and likely replaced with someone a bit more eurosceptic, like IDS, Hague, or Portillo.
 
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