THE British government survived a crucial Commons vote on the state of the National Health Service late last night by seven votes after a threatened Tory rebellion failed to materialise.
Sir John Gorst, the Tory MP for Hendon North, who had repeatedly warned he was going to vote against the government, decided to toe the party line after he won "major concessions" from the Health Secretary, Mr Stephen Dorrell, over the future of the accident and emergency unit at his local hospital in Edgeware.
The Labour motion was defeated by 319 votes to 312. The majority was larger than predicted because two Labour MPs were deemed too ill to travel to the House of Commons, whilst another was abroad.
The Prime Minister, Mr John Major, clearly emphasised the importance of this vote to the government by threatening that any Tory rebels could be deselected by the party.
It is understood Mr Major had instructed Tory party whips to warn potential rebels that even if they abstained they could be thrown out of the Conservative Party, deselected as an MP and that their constituency association could be disbanded with a new candidate being imposed.
This extreme action was directed at Sir John Gorst, who angered Tory Party whips last month after he "withdrew his Co-operation" with the British government in protest at their refusal to preserve the accident and emergency unit at his local hospital in Edgeware.
As the Tory whips organised ambulances to ensure that sick Tory MPs would be present for the vote, the stakes had been raised again when the Ulster Unionists had signalled that at least five of them were prepared to vote with Labour's motion and concern over the "grave situation now evident in the National Health Service".
Earlier, the Labour Party saved the government from another embarrassing row over Europe yesterday afternoon as they joined together to effectively kill off a leading Tory Euro-sceptic's Bill demanding a referendum on the issue.
After Mrs Theresa Gorman had outlined her Bill in the House of Commons, pro-Europeans in both parties failed to appoint the tellers to count the votes in order to prevent any show of strength by the Euro-sceptics.
Although this parliamentary procedure allows Mrs Gorman's Bill, by default, to have a formal first hearing later this month, it has no chance now of becoming law because the Bill will not be allowed any further parliamentary time.
Despite these tactics, Mrs Gorman declared victory and accused the pro-Europeans of "cowardice". Tory Euro-sceptics had predicted that her Bill, which was also sponsored by the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, and the former Labour Cabinet minister, Mr Tony Benn, would have got cross-party support.
"It's a triumph. They were running scared. I had 58 pledges of support. Their tactics of not appointing any tellers (who count the vote) showed they had no guts. It was gutlessness, if they had any guts they would have tried to face us down," she said.
However several senior Tory Euro-sceptics also failed to support Mrs Gorman's Bill and had tried to persuade her to drop it because of the General Election. The former Chancellor, Mr Norman Lamont, and another key Euro-sceptic, Mr Bill Cash, whose own referendum Bill last year was supported by 78 Tories, were both notably absent during her speech. The former leadership contender, Mr John Redwood, admitted he was unhappy at the Bill's timing but that he would have supported it if the Bill had gone to a vote. "Labour does not want to reveal its own splits on this issue. It is an excellent day's work," he added.