MR JOHN MAJOR's plea for his party's trust was hurled back in his teeth last night by bitter Eurosceptics, after he again refused to change his policy on the European single currency.
"The strife goes on," declared Sir George Gardiner, MP, after hearing Mr Major insist he would stick by his "wait and see" approach to the currency issue now tearing the Tories apart. The risk to Mr Major in the Commons was heightened as Mr Terry Dicks, MP, renewed his threat to resign the Conservative whip.
Against a backdrop of mounting political crisis, Mr Major gave a 50 minute television interview to the BBC's On The Record programme. He insisted Britain's national interests demanded participation in the currency negotiations, whether Britain finally joined or not. Counting himself out of the game now, he said, would be "a dereliction of responsibility".
Against Euro sceptic expectations, Mr Major said he would choose "the national interest" ahead of the party interest, refusing to be drawn on whether he believed Britain was likely to join the single currency in the first wave.
The Prime Minister sought to reassure his Tory critics, by trenchantly stating his opposition to the broad thrust of the so called Maastricht 2 draft treaty. The idea that Britain would allow its immigration and asylum laws to be placed under the direction of the European Commission was "absolute nonsense". The idea that it would relinquish control of its borders was "absolutely ludicrous". Suggestions that foreign policy should be subject to a majority vote in Brussels was "laughable".
But on the currency issue, Mr Major gave no ground.
Questioned about attempts by some countries to "fudge" the convergence requirements to qualify to join the single currency, Mr Major replied: "If they're cheating, what should I do? Do my critics say I should stand aside and let them cheat without playing any part in the negotiations at all? Where is the logic in that? If they are seeking to bend the economic criteria, and move towards a weak currency - if that is what my critics say is happening - they, my critics, should be saying to me: `You get in there and stop them - not stand aside and let them go ahead with doing it'.
Mr Major said if others proceeded without properly meeting the criteria the result would be deeply damaging to the whole of Europe. He suggested a premature decision now would weaken Britain's negotiating hand.
This was disputed by the former Conservative chairman, Lord Tebbit, who suggested it might now be the UK that was the leading country applying fudge to the Maastricht convergence criteria.
Lord Tebbit said: "The Prime Minister said that he has to keep his option to join the single currency or he would be excluded from the discussions concerning its creation. That is not so. It is specifically set out in the treaty that our opt out - or opt in, to be more correct - expires on December 31st next year, but that we would remain at the table whether we were in or out during the first half of 1998 with our full voting rights concerning the observation of the criteria for other would be member states."
The former leadership challenger, Mr John Redwood, said Britain should insist that other countries should not be allowed to join EMU if they had fudged the convergence criteria. He said: "I think we have a very good case to say: Maastricht did not work. If you want to have a single currency you will have to change the method of approach and you will have to amend the treaty."