JOHN MAJOR made a desperate plea to the British people last night over the head of his bickering party as the Tory election campaign threatened to degenerate into open civil war over Europe.
The Prime Minister dramatically scrapped a scheduled party political broadcast and instead went on TV to explain his "wait and see" policy and to promise electors that the ultimate decision on a single European currency would be theirs.
But even as he prepared to try to save the Tory campaign from collapse, a third junior minister, Mr Eric Forth, declared his opposition to the transfer of any further powers to Europe. That widening rebellion prompted Mr Major to tell voters that the issue of a federal Europe was becoming the "defining issue" on the doorsteps.
In the most dramatic gamble of the election campaign, Mr Major decided to confront his Eurosceptics after Mr Tony Blair claimed his failure to control them had made a laughing stock of his leadership.
Casting himself as the national leader on the eve of crucial negotiations, Mr Major last night asked the country not to require him to reveal his negotiating hand, explained the possible advantages and disadvantages of the single currency and again promised a referendum if his cabinet decided to Join.
"I will not take Britain into a single currency, he declared. "Only the British nation can do that. Upon that you may be certain.
His plea to the country followed his earlier sensational appeal to his own party not to send him naked into the conference chamber. As junior ministers joined an estimated 200 Tory candidates declaring against the currency option, Mr Major begged them: "Whether you agree with me or disagree, whether you like me or loathe me - don't bind my hands."
Mr Major's crisis move followed the anti single currency declarations of junior ministers John Horam and James Paice, and a meeting with pro European ministers Mr Michael Heseltine and Mr Kenneth Clarke.
The two errant ministers survived after a token pledge to support official government policy. But Mr Blair said Mr Major's failure to sack them made him a laughing stock and claimed the issue now was not Europe but leadership.
"It shows the divisions are so deep within the Conservative Party that even in an election campaign they are incapable, of being led," he said. "And if they are incapable of being led, they are incapable of forming a government that can press the national interest."
Challenged about his breach of the government line, Mr Forth, a junior Employment minister, said: "I regrettably didn't hear Mr Major's press conference this morning. I have been in my constituency, and one of the oddities about campaigning is that if you are knocking on doors... you are blissfully unaware of what's going on in the media."
Mr Paddy Ashdown, the Democrat leader said the Tory Party was engulfed in civil war, while Mr Gordon Brown, the shadow chancellor, claimed Mr Major's statement "sounded like a rehearsal for his resignation speech."
. The latest Gallup opinion poll, published in today's Daily Telegraph, puts Labour at 50 per cent, the Conservatives at 31 per cent, the Liberal Democrats at 11 per cent and others (including the Referendum Party) at seven per cent. If repeated on polling day, this would give Labour a majority in the Commons of over 200 seats.