Westminster's bipartisan policy on the North was under apparent strain last night as the Conservatives warned they might vote against the Bill enabling prisoner releases later this week.
At the same time a leading Tory backbencher, Mr Andrew Hunter, accused the Conservative front-bench team of effectively "ducking" the issue of explicit linkage between prisoner releases and the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons.
The controversial Northern Ireland (Sentences) Bill begins a two-day Committee Stage in the Commons this afternoon, and is scheduled to complete its final stages and receive a Third Reading on Thursday. The Conservatives abstained in the vote on the Second Reading last Wednesday night, while signalling their intention to amend the Bill in line with assurances given by the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, during the referendum campaign.
The former home secretary, Mr Michael Howard, said yesterday that they would probably vote against the Bill on Thursday if their amendments were rejected by the government.
Speaking on GMTV's Sunday Programme, Mr Howard said: "We have supported the government consistently. But we think assurances were given about decommissioning and we think there should be links, as the Prime Minister said there would be, between decommissioning and the release of prisoners.
"That is why we are putting down amendments to secure that link, and if those amendments are not accepted I think we will vote against this Bill on Third Reading on Thursday."
However, Mr Hunter - and Mr Peter Robinson, the DUP deputy leader - last night said they believed the government could accept the Conservative amendment because it provided no more explicit guarantee of actual decommissioning taking place than does the agreement itself.
Mr Hunter, chairman of the Tory backbench committee on Northern Ireland, said he was "bitterly disappointed" by the amendment tabled in the name of his party leader, Mr William Hague, and the Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Andrew Mackay, and supported by Mr David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist leader, and his parliamentary spokesman on the Bill, the Lagan Valley MP, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson.
The key Tory amendment concerns the section of the Bill dealing with the powers of the Secretary of State to specify terrorist organisations for the purpose of identifying those organisations whose members are entitled to benefit from the programme of accelerated prisoner releases. In addition to the criteria already listed, covering an established commitment to the use of only peaceful and democratic means, the Tory amendment would require the Secretary of State to believe that a qualifying organisation was "committed to the total disarmament of all paramilitary organisations and the achievement of the decommissioning of all paramilitary arms, including any of its own, by May 22nd, 2000" and was co-operating fully with the decommissioning commission "in the implementation of the Belfast Agreement".
Suzanne Breen in Belfast writes: The Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, accused the Conservatives of playing party politics with the peace process. He said: "Michael Howard's comments that the Conservatives will vote against the Bill on the release of prisoners on Wednesday unless the British government inserts a linkage between prisoner release and decommissioning shows the Tories have learned nothing since losing power."
Mr McLaughlin claimed that the Conservatives' "negative attitude" to the peace process while in government caused the breakdown of the first IRA ceasefire. "Michael Howard's threat to give sustenance to the No men of unionism by voting against this Bill shows once more the disdain with which he and his party hold the wishes of the Irish people who voted overwhelmingly in favour of the terms of the Good Friday document in the referendum."