MR John Major's election plans were reduced to near-farce last night as the Conservative Party once more tore itself apart over Europe. The Prime Minister is threatened with Commons rebellion and defeat just days before a tax-cutting budget designed as the springboard to the general election campaign.
On Monday Mr Major will meet, Sir Marcus Fox, chairman of the powerful 1922 Committee, to be told he must bow to backbench pressure for a debate on the European Single Currency.
In a return of the "death wish" that has so long afflicted sections of the Tory Party, one MP, Mr Tony Marlow, again hinted he might resign the party whip. Another Euro-sceptic, Sir George Gardiner, said darkly: "The government's finger is hovering over the self-destruct button. I am off to update my election plans."
Labour and the Liberal Democrats last night rallied their troops, ready to inflict an embarrassing defeat on Mr Major in a fight depicted as between parliament and the executive.
The row was triggered by Mr Major's rejection of a full Commons debate on three key documents providing for the operation a single currency. These are due to be considered by EU finance ministers on December 2nd, ahead of next month's Inter-Governmental Conference in Dublin.
The Tory right alleges that the" draft regulations would effectively lock Britain into a new Exchange-Rate Mechanism, and leave it, open to financial sanctions if it failed to meet EU currency "convergence" and "stability" criteria. The government insists the proposed regulations apply only to those joining the currency, and would not prejudice Britain's "opt out".
But despite Mar Major insistence that it would be for him to make any agreement in Dublin, the Tory right seems determined to clip the wings of pro-European Chancellor Kenneth Clarke, ahead of the Ecofin meeting.
There seems little doubt the whole affair represents a determined, final effort by the Eurosceptics to have Mr Major rule out British membership of the currency for the lifetime of the next parliament.
Labour's Mr Robin Cook taunted Mr Major: "The" only reason he is running away from a debate is because he is afraid that exposing Mr Clarke to the Tory Euro-sceptics will expose the deep fault-line over Europe in the Tory party."
. PA adds: Former Conservative prime minister Baroness Thatcher warned Tory supporters last night that socialism is not dead - and that the threat of New Labour must be tackled if Mr Blair's party is not to, "ruin" the economy.
The former prime minister rounded on Mr Blair's assessment of her term in office, describing as "not just arrogant" but "absurd" his suggestion that its rampant individualism fractured society.
She praised Mr Major's "persistence, imagination and skill" in taking forward in the 1990s her government's strategy in the previous decade.
The speech - which some Tories feared months ago could be a devastating attack on Mr Major's government - turned out to be wholly supportive of the current Prime Mininster.