WHAT should have been good news for Mr Major yesterday - a drop of 41,100 in unemployment figures - was completely over shadowed by the Tory infighting over Europe and criticism from the Labour Party that the government had massaged the figures.
The figures showed that the number of people claiming unemployment benefit fell for the 13th successive month to 1,707,000, the lowest figure since September 1990. Seizing on the figures as evidence that "Britain is booming", the Education and Employment Secretary, Mrs Gillian Shephard, said Britain had by far the lowest unemployment rate of any major European country.
However, in an attack on the government's figures, the general secretary of the Civil and Public Services Association, Mr Barry Reamsbottom, claimed people were being given "phoney jobs" and then taken off the unemployment register. The practice, he said, was being carried out with Mrs Shephard's full knowledge.
The Labour Party's employment spokesman, Mr Ian McCartney, said the government's application to the EU for funds to deal with unemployment was a "secret admission" of "mass unemployment".
"They are prepared to tell Europe the truth yet lie to their, own people," he added.
The general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, Mr John Monks, claimed the number of people wanting to work was closer to 4.5 million and he said the government's figures were giving a totally misleading impression of the labour market.