THE British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Kenneth Clarke, yesterday rounded on dissident ruling Conservatives, saying they made it impossible for the Prime Minister, Mr Major, to lead the party.
"John can lead a party, but there are sometimes parties that are simply not capable of being led," Mr Clarke said in a BBC radio interview in which his frustration with internal bickering was plain.
Mr Clarke spoke after smouldering right wing discontent burst into the open with a vicious attack on Mr Major by one legislator.
The member of parliament, writing anonymously in the left wing Tribune weekly under the pen name, Cassandra, accused Mr Major of failing to stand up for, Britain in the European Union.
"More and more Tory MPs are waking up to the fact that John Major is terminally inadequate at defending Britain's interests and leading our party," the MP said.
"I've never heard a more preposterous remark in my life," Mr Clarke said.
Mr Clarke is the most pro European member of Mr Major's cabinet.
The billionaire financier, Sir James Goldsmith, was roundly derided by the main parties yesterday after he revealed the big question he wants to put to voters in a referendum about Europe.
The criticism was most harsh, from Tories, who stand to lose the most votes to his multi million pound Referendum Party campaign.
Undaunted, Sir James will today lead the biggest anti EU rally this year. To the embarrassment of many fellow Euro MPs, Sir James, a French MEP, has invited prominent Maastricht Treaty opponents to a one day conference at the European Parliament in Brussels. About 600 Euro sceptics from across the Continent are expected to attend.
The question he proposes would be: "Do you want the United Kingdom to be part of a federal Europe, or do you want the United Kingdom to return to an association of sovereign nations that are part of a common trading market?"