THE British Chancellor, Mr Kenneth Clarke, saw off the Tory rebels yesterday with a strong Commons performance in which he promised there will be "no binding decisions" on the future of a single currency when he meets European finance ministers next Monday.
Mr Clarke, forced to the despatch box because of uncertainty at the heart of government over how to handle the rebels, offered enough concessions to placate them, including a promise of further debate before the crucial Dublin summit next month of heads of government.
He even cheered them up a little by hinting heavily that the leaked European documents that appeared in the weekend press might have come from the former Labour leader Mr Neil Kinnock, now a European commissioner in Brussels.
Predictions that he would be mauled by the rebels failed to materialise as he took questions from a cross section of Tory backbenchers, including Mr John Redwood, Mr Norman Lamont and Mr Bill Cash. Responding to the criticism over the last week of lack of parliamentary scrutiny of European legislation, Mr Clarke said he favoured "full parliamentary debate and scrutiny of these important issues." He described the versions of the leaked documents in the weekend press as "highly misleading".
Referring to the leak of confidential documents on EMU, the former minister Mr David Hunt asked: "Will you ensure that no further confidential papers go to European Commissioner Kinnock's office until you have received a satisfactory explanation of exactly what went wrong?"
Mr Clarke said: "The Maastricht opt out remains completely untouched by what we're considering. It will remain completely untouched and I've no doubt this House will debate it hereafter."
The Chancellor said he had "no means of knowing" where the leak came from as the documents were sent to both Britain's EU commissioners - Mr Kinnock and the Tory former minister Sir Leon Brittan.
"I have no idea how it's reached the outside world, but the fact that Mr Brown was waving it about arid has revealed it, makes me think that Sir Leon Brittan is probably in the clear and I shall certainly consider what briefing I put forward to anybody in Brussels in the near future."
Mr Clarke said that press reports "confuse debate as far as the public is concerned, and sometimes in this House." He told MPs: "You must understand how we negotiate. I personally would rather that other member states did not know at every stage exactly what I was pushing for, exactly what I was going to withdraw, what I really meant and what was a try on, and what I was actually trying to secure.
To cries of "Oh!", he added: "A process of permanent parliamentary debate, permanent parliamentary scrutiny and occasional parliamentary hysteria is not always in the national interest." To the dismay of fellow Eurosceptics, Mr Lamont appeared to agree with Mr Clarke, saying that Britain's EMU opt out was intact.
"But you have made it clear you would quite like to join the single currency. If that did happen, the fines and the scrutiny would apply to us, and this House is entitled to debate the level of the fines, the flexibility and inflexibility of the system.
"That has not been debated adequately until this afternoon. If is had been, this needless row would have been avoided."
Mr Clarke, responding to a question from a Labour backbencher, said: "I wanted to come to the despatch box once I saw this debate spiralling off into who knows where as it got reported in ever more extravagant ways outside.
Later, in reply to a Labour backbencher, Mr Clarke said: "Sterling is now a floating currency. I have no intention of shadowing any currency as long as it remains floating. It would be damaging and futile to do so."
He stressed that any political agreement would be subject to parliamentary scrutiny.