THE British Labour Party leader, Mr Tony Blair, strongly supported Mr Major yesterday after his statement to the House. "I join you in condemning without reservation the atrocity at Canary Wharf," he told the Prime Minister.
Mr Blair said there had been speculation about whether the IRA meant the bomb as a one off or part of a more prolonged campaign. "For them it may be a matter of tactics. But for the victims it has been a matter of life and death, and there can be nothing but the most profound contempt for those who will butcher wholly innocent people in the pursuit of any such strategy, whatever it is.
"The question now is hard but simple: how do we regain the momentum for peace without concessions to the men of war?" The majority of people from both traditions in Ireland were committed to peace," he said. "Sinn Fein represent a section of nationalist opinion but it is worth recalling they are not predominant even in the nationalist community, North or South."
If Sinn Fein wanted to participate in negotiations "then they must accept the same peaceful methods as everyone else".
Decommissioning remained the obvious way to establish with confidence that Sinn Fein would accept peaceful methods but this had been ruled out by it Mr Blair said.
A new electoral mechanism was an alternative. But if elections went ahead, they should not be a return to Stormont and should lead directly to negotiations with decommissioning beginning, in parallel.
The Labour leader told Mr Major: "You are surely right to emphasise that other options, whether from the Irish Government or otherwise, will always be open to consideration.
"I do not believe that this is the end of the search for peace. There will be still more and perhaps even greater risks needing to be taken than ever before. But the risks are justifiable, and the people in Northern Ireland should know that whatever the political differences between myself and the Prime Minister on this we shall stand four square together in the cause of peace".