LABOUR's Mr Robin Cook derided Mr John Major's government yesterday as one unable to lead in Europe because it was "paralysed by divisions at home".
While Euro sceptic Tories gave the White Paper a cautious welcome, their sights remained firmly fixed on the looming government decision on whether to hold a referendum on British membership of a single European currency.
Mr Cook endorsed Mr Rifkind's comments about the need for unanimity and inter governmental action on Common Foreign and Security Policy, and about co operation in the justice and home affairs fields.
But he said the Foreign Secretary's "greatest omission" was a failure to contribute to the debate about a single currency.
The government, he added, had "come up with a paper that tries to please everyone and, as a result, will please no one".
If the Tory Euro sceptics were pleased with the White Paper, they seemed at pains to conceal the fact. Mr Norman Lamont welcomed the promised opposition to an extension of majority voting in the Council, but told Mr Rifkind: "The real test of what you have said is whether this country can ... avoid being sucked into a European state of the kind many of our partners want."
He asked: "Do you know of any organisation in history which has had an elected parliament, a supreme court, a passport, a right of citizenship and a single currency, which has not been a state?"
Mr Jonathan Aitken, while welcoming "some good Euro sceptic themes" in the White Paper, told Mr Rifkind: "But may I warn you that if by any chance those important battles you and your team are going to fight were to fail ... this House would have to start to seriously consider the option of withdrawal."