THE BBC war correspondent Martin Bell looks set to stand as an independent, anti corruption candidate in Mr Neil Hamilton's Tatton constituency.
After days of hunting for a high profile, widely respected figure to oppose the former trade minister, Labour and the Liberal Democrats jointly backed Mr Bell.
His emergence as a candidate is likely to blow wide open the electoral prospects in a constituency which is normally a Tory safe seat. Labour announced 10 days ago that it was considering standing down its candidate if it could find an "anti sleaze" candidate to fight the MP at the centre of cash for questions allegations.
Mr Bell is to be supported by both Mr Jon Kelly, the candidate who would have stood for Labour, and the Liberal Democrat candidate, Dr Roger Barlow. They will not contest the election unless the emergence of Mr Bell forces Mr Hamilton to withdraw his candidature. If that were to happen, Mr Bell would stand down too.
The emergence of so high profile a candidate backed by the opposition parties comes on the day an ICM poll in the Observer showed that an anti sleaze candidate would defeat Mr Hamilton in his Tatton constituency.
Mr Bell's decision to contest Tatton unless Mr Hamilton stands aside increases the pressure on local Tories. They gather tomorrow night for a meeting which, in normal circumstances, would have been a formality - the adoption as candidate of Mr Hamilton.
But since it emerged that he took payments and gifts from Mr Mohamed Al Fayed of Harrods, pressure on him to stand down has been growing.
Although they have been in a minority so far, there have been increasing sounds of disgruntlement emerging from his party in recent days, culminating in the resignation at the weekend of the association's treasurer, Mr Tony Martin. Mr Martin said he believed that Mr Hamilton was innocent of the charges he faced but that, on the ground, it was proving increasingly difficult for activists to persuade local people to vote for Mr Hamilton.
Rachel Donnelly adds:
The British Prime Minister, Mr Major, has launched a blistering attack on Labour U turns in key policy areas of Scottish devolution, unions and privatisation, which will be announced this week, insisting the party could not be trusted in government.
Following Mr Major's charge that Labour was creating policies "on the hoof" the shadow chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown, denied the party's review of privatisation amounted to a change in policy.
The manifesto, Mr Brown insisted, had promised a spending review and Labour would draw up plans for an inventory of £122 billion of property, land and other assets - including the television station Channel 4 and the Tote - held by government departments. After the review, he said, "we will make a decision about whether assets are best kept in the public sector".
Focusing his attack on the "idiocy" of Labour bringing economic prosperity to Britain, Mr Major taunted Mr Blair, asking him why policy changes had not been announced at their manifesto launch last week. "If it is a question of trust, why weren't they in the manifesto? Either they should have been or the Labour Party are slithering around and have changed their policy. It must be one or the other.
Clearly angry, union representatives have also claimed that Labour has performed a U turn following recent meetings with Mr Blair. The unions believed they had a firm pledge from the Labour leader that a bill on new union rights and a minimum wage would be included in Mr Blair's first Queen's Speech.