THE STRIFE over the European Union within the Conservative Party looked set to intensify as Euro sceptics yesterday lit the fuse of another Tory bombshell less than 24 hours after the Prime Minister's attempt to quell the turmoil.
Following Mr Major's Sunday LTV interview - in which he said he would not be "held to ransom" by critics the former whipless Euro rebel, Mrs Teresa Gorman, announced she is to force any potentially divisive Commons vote on the issue.
The MP for Billericay has obtained a slot to introduce a 10 minute rule Bill which would allow a referendum on whether Britain should withdraw from the EU altogether.
Mrs Gorman said she had been moved to act in direct response to Mr Major's comments on Sunday, and she dismissed the Prime Minister's principle of sticking to the wait and see policy on a single currency as "not tenable".
She seemed to pay little heed to Mr Major's warning that he would rather let Tory rebels force a general election than leave himself sidelined in key EU negotiations.
"I say that we don't have time for such a high minded position," Mrs Gorman said. "We are political animals, our support is here in Britain. We need people's votes - no amount of goodwill on the national level towards our European colleagues will win us the election unless we take on board the sentiments which people deliver to us in our postbags.
Earlier, 16 pro European Tory backbenchers put their names to an advertisement in the London Times urging the Prime Minister to take a more positive attitude to the EU.
The Tory Party chairman, Dr Brian Mawhinney, told the warring factions to focus on the "big issue" of the economy and on defeating Labour.
The Labour party leader, Mr Tony Blair, who was yesterday touring Barnsley East before Thursday's crucial by election (in which the government looks set to lose its Commons majority) said Mr Mior's attempts to unite the Conservative party over Europe were already crumbling.
"To be fair, Mr Major tried to set out a clear position yesterday but even today already it's falling apart," Mr Blair said. "It just isn't in the interests of the country to have a government stumbling, limping on with its factions simply tearing it apart."
The Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Paddy Ashdown, dismissed Mr Major's TV interview, and said the Tories were "irretrievably divided" over the issue.
Mrs Gorman's move echoes that of the Tory Euro sceptic, Mr Bill Cash, who earlier this year introduced a Referendum Bill which won the support of 78 defiant Tory MPs. The row over the EU looks set to surface in public once more during a two day Commons debate on Europe tomorrow and Thursday.