THE BRITISH Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Michael Heseltine, categorically denied reports yesterday that he wanted to break the civil service's political neutrality in order to aid the Conservative Party in the run up to the general election.
Mr Heseltine claimed that a leaked Cabinet memo, which outlined his proposal to use civil servants to find contractors willing to endorse the Conservatives during the election, had been misinterpreted.
After insisting that he entirely agreed with the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Robin Butler, that such a proposal would be an "inappropriate" use of civil servants, Mr Heseltine accused the Labour Party, who publicised the memo, of mounting a "dirty tricks" campaign against him.
Sir Robin pointed out to me that is was very important to make sure that this [project] was knot done by civil servants, and that it should be done by special advisers.
The moment he did that, I agreed that was the position . .. I immediately made clear that no civil servants were to be used for party political purposes," Mr Heseltine insisted.
"That is utterly straight down the line policy and I wouldn't deviate from it," he said.
Labour's deputy leader, Mr John Prescott, described Mr Heseltine's proposal as another "blatant example of an arrogant abuse of Government power" and stressed that there could be no other interpretation of the leaked memo.
"Nobody trusts this government any more. It is acting in its own party interests and not the national interest.
"This Cabinet Office memo asked departments to identify service providers who could be vigorous and attractive proponents of government policies'," he said.
"How can you interpret that otherwise than as a very clear policy to use civil servants to serve the party interest instead of the national interest?" Mr Prescott asked.
The Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Paddy Ashdown, called for a Bill of Rights to prevent such abuses of power, particularly as the integrity of the civil service was "one of the very few checks and balances we have left now in our democracy".
"A proper, open and democratic system ought to have within itself its own checks and balances, for example a Bill of Rights that stops the individual liberties and freedoms of the people of this country being trampled on by the powerful, whether they're the government, or the institutions of the state, or big business or the trade unions," Mr Ashdown said.
. Advocates of a return to caning in schools have a "medieval" attitude, according to a former Conservative Prime Minister, Sir Edward Heath.
Mr Heath was speaking in advance of today's second reading in the Commons of the Education Bill.