THE British Lab our Party leader, Mr Tony Blair, will enter the lion's den today to defend his policy U turn over Scottish and Welsh devolution against a torrent of internal party criticism and Conservative and nationalist ridicule.
While insisting it would deliver its promise to establish a Scottish parliament and a Welsh assembly in the first year of a Labour government, the party yesterday announced it would seek approval for its home rule plans in Scottish and Welsh referendums before placing legislation before the House of Commons.
The Labour leadership also faced a possible backlash from the party in Scotland over its decision to ask Scottish voters to decide separately if they wanted an Edinburgh parliament and whether it should have tax raising or varying powers. Last night, Labour's Scottish Affairs spokesman, Mr John McAllion, resigned his front bench post in protest at the proposed referendum.
Sources close to Mr Blair said he would "pour all his passion" into a keynote speech in Edinburgh this afternoon, in which he will argue that the plan to secure public consent for constitutional reform is the surest way to silence Conservative criticism.
Some Conservatives at Westminster said privately that, while Mr Blair would face short term difficulty within his own party, his strategy could make it difficult for Conservative MPs to oppose legislation when it finally came before parliament.
That short term risk was dramatically underlined yesterday when Lord Ewing, a former Labour minister, said he was resigning as joint chairman of the Labour Liberal Democrat led Scottish Constitutional Convention. Lord Ewing told Radio Clyde: "I'm absolutely furious at the change that has been announced. It's a disgrace."
Elsewhere, the news that Labour's devolution proposals would first be submitted to a referendum test provoked a furious back bench reaction and accusations of "tactical retreat".
Mr Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish National Party, accused Mr Blair of "a betrayal of gigantic proportions" and claimed Labour was "trying to kick the constitutional issue into touch". A delighted Scottish Secretary. Mr Michael Forsyth, meanwhile, pronounced Labour's devolution scheme "a dog's breakfast".
Before travelling to the G7 summit in Lyons, the Prime Minister, Mr John Major, resumed his offensive, saying Labour was planning the biggest constitutional upheaval in generations and warning this would lead to the breakup of the United Kingdom within a "measurably short period of time". But the shadow Scottish Secretary, Mr George Robertson, accused Mr Major of "jingoism".
At a Glasgow press conference to announce the policy development, he insisted: "It is the very opposite of separatism. We are opposed to the strident nationalism which would take Scotland out of the United Kingdom."
But some Lab our MPs, mindful of the lost referendum campaign in 1976, are suspicious of the proposal to separate the issue of devolution and tax raising powers. They fear the second vote could be lost and Scotland would be left with a glorified local authority. There is anger at what one Scottish Labour MP, Mr George Galloway, and others described as a complete absence of consultation by the party leadership.