THE Conservative Party's war over Europe continued unabated yesterday, prompting Lord Archer, the former chairman, to warn ministers against starting the battle for the Tory leadership now. He believed the party faithful would never forgive them.
His comments followed a public row over Europe between the Chancellor, Mr Kenneth Clarke and the Home Secretary, Mr Michael Howard, which was interpreted as the start of their fight for succession.
Lord Archer warned that "people were wasting their time" if they thought they were potential leadership candidates.
"I hear what is being said and I see one or two figures doing that and I am bound to say to them that their duty is quite simply to get behind the Prime Minister in the next two weeks and if they don't, the party will remember very clearly.
"This election is not going to be lost and the Prime Minister will continue and those people wasting their time working out their own positions will find they have no position at all," he said.
However, in a robust defence of Britain's EU membership, Mr Clarke contradicted comments made earlier by Mr Howard, as he insisted that the Amsterdam summit was not a threat to the nation-state.
Clearly aware of his contradictory stance, Mr Clarke stressed: "We should be a leading member of the European Union, we should not be imagining plots against us. I don't think the survival of Britain as a nation-state is at risk because of our membership of the European Union. I just don't hold that view."
However, Mr Howard, one of the Euro-sceptics in the Cabinet, claimed the EU summit's agenda was "so far-reaching" it threatened the "very survival of Britain as an independent nation-state". The shadow Chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown, immediately exploited this latest row, suggesting the ministers were now at one another's throats" fighting to become the next leader of the Conservative Party.
"Today will be seen as the first full day of the leadership campaign," he said.
In an attempt at damage limitation, the deputy Prime Minister, Mr Michael Heseltine, insisted both ministers agreed on the major issues and were opposed to handing over powers to Europe on defence and immigration, which will be under discussion in Amsterdam.
"I think those are both important issues. I think that should be on the agenda this election campaign, but what comes over is the attempt to try and pretend that the two leading members of our party you have interviewed today are at odds on these things and they are not," he stated.
The Labour leader, Mr Tony Blair, said he felt sorry for the Prime Minister, Mr John Major, as he tried to prevent his party breaking up.
"I think the single biggest lesson now is not to end up in a situation, as the Conservatives are, where civil war is breaking out 11 days from an election and I believe at least the Labour Party will provide a united government for this country," he added.
The Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Paddy Ashdown, meanwhile, suggested the Tories had given up on the election, but he refused to predict the winner of any leadership battle.
"It is absolutely clear that the Conservatives have given up on this election. What we are seeing is a repeat of what happened to Labour in the 1980s: six, eight years or even a decade of turmoil. They are fighting the election after the election to find who is the leader of the Conservative Party. If you put ferrets in a sack, you, won't know who is going to win," he said.