The Conservative leader, Mr William Hague, last night moved to pre-empt the possible defection to Labour of a black peer, Lord Taylor, by demanding that he reaffirm his support for the Conservatives.
The latest twist in the Tory party's internal race row followed Mr Hague's announcement that he had ordered the right-wing MP, Mr John Townend, to apologise for his recent controversial statements on race or face expulsion from the party.
However, it was unclear last night whether Mr Hague's belated "disciplinary action" or Mr Townend's apology would be enough to spare the Tory leadership the high-profile defection of Lord Taylor in the run-up to the general election.
While he would have no difficulty signing up to the principles outlined in a declaration by prospective Conservative candidates from ethnic minority communities, Lord Taylor said, Mr Hague's action was "too little, too late".
Mr Townend had evoked memories of Mr Enoch Powell's notorious "rivers of blood" speech with his assertion that immigration had undermined Britain's "homogenous Anglo-Saxon society" and was creating "a mongrel race".
Mr Hague initially dismissed Lord Taylor's call for the withdrawal of the party whip from Mr Townend, saying this would amount to little more than "gesture" politics since the MP was to retire at the forthcoming election.
However, the influential Tory Reform Group yesterday insisted that such a gesture was now required as a second Tory peer, Baroness Flather, echoed Lord Taylor's criticism of Mr Hague's "pathetic" and "weak" leadership on the issue.
"I think it is a time for strong leadership," declared Baroness Flather on the BBC's Today programme. "If you talk about mongrelisation and so on, you are moving into a sphere of debate which is not debate, it is just insulting, offensive and excluding."
Lord Taylor, meanwhile, raised the stakes by saying his position might well be untenable if Mr Townend remained in the Conservative party by the start of the election campaign.
Amid fears that the row could haunt Mr Hague all the way to Mr Blair's expected confirmation of an election date next week, there were signs of a determined front bench strategy to close the controversy.
The Shadow Foreign Secretary, Mr Francis Maude, said it was completely unacceptable for Mr Townend to speak of "Commonwealth immigration" and Anglo-Saxon society when what he meant was coloured immigration and white society.
Mr Hague's hopes of drawing a line under the racism row were last night dealt a fresh blow when former prime minister Sir Edward Heath denounced his handling of the affair. Sir Edward told BBC News 24's One to One programme that Mr Hague should have expelled Mr Townend but could not do so because the party was in the grip of the "extreme right". -(PA)