THE Conservative Party got itself in a Scottish stew yesterday, as conflicting front bench statements threatened to blunt the party's attack on Labour's devolution plans. But even as Labour went on the offensive, Mr Tony Blair was forced to deny reports that he was about to dump his party's commitment to a referendum on electoral reform.
At a press conference the Labour leader denied he was considering such a move, and insisted the policy remained as spelt out in the policy document The Road to the Manifesto. And his office last night confirmed that the proposed referendum would be central to a joint Labour/Liberal Democrat package on constitutional reform to be published within weeks.
Constitutional issues dominated another day of pre election skirmishing, as the Wirral by election campaign moved into its second week amid continuing speculation as to whether it will take place.
And the Scottish Secretary, Mr Michael Forsyth, tried to defuse the row about the Conservative attitude to any future Edinburgh parliament, saying: "A Scottish parliament is not just for Christmas, it's for life." Renewing his charge that the proposed tax raising parliament would cause "enormous damage", Mr Forsyth accused Labour of "flirting with the break up of the UK".
Mr Forsyth asserted himself after reports that the Health Secretary, Mr Stephen Dorrell, had suggested a future Conservative government might scrap an Edinburgh assembly - which in turn prompted a charge from Mr Blair that the Conservatives were in "complete chaos and confusion".
In a newspaper interview Mr Dorrell said a future Tory government would not leave "unchanged" a Scottish parliament established by Labour, which would be damaging to the integrity of the UK. But in a subsequent radio interview he denied suggesting abolition was an option.
And Mr Forsyth later insisted: "Once Humpty Dumpty falls off the wall, he will not be put back together again, no matter how many of the king's horses and the king's men turn up. The message is that a Scottish parliament is not just for Christmas, it's for life. And it would grow into a creature which might do enormous damage in Scotland, but we would have to live with the consequence of it".
Mr Dorrell has been given a pre election role by Mr Major to carry the battle to Labour on the constitutional issue. Asked if it would be better if he spoke on the Scottish issue, Mr Forsyth said: "On the contrary, life would be much easier if people in the BBC in London realised that this is not a Scottish issue but a United Kingdom issue. Stephen Dorrell is absolutely right to speak out about the consequences for England."
Asked by the newspaper if he meant that the best way to preserve the Union would be to get rid of a Scottish parliament, Mr Dorrell had replied: "Yes, absolutely." But in the later radio interview he denied this amounted to a pledge to unscramble Labour's devolution blueprint.
"If we are looking at what is to be the position two general elections down the line, I made the position clear ... Such a parliament would in my view seriously damage the union of the UK, and it would be unlikely that an incoming Conservative government would leave it unchanged. That is a very different thing indeed from saying that we would abolish it.
"If there is a serious flaw in an institution, of course we would have to address it. But it's to live in cloud cuckoo land to imagine that you can go back to the position before such a parliament was established."
Accusing Mr Dorrell of making "a chump of himself", the Shadow Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, challenged him to say if a future Tory government would seek to restore the rights of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords if a Labour government had abolished them.