CONSERVATIVE Euro sceptics and Labour MPs have reacted angrily to comments by the former British prime minister, Sir Edward Heath, which appear to contradict the British government's position on the key issues of Scottish devolution, the European Social Chapter and a minimum wage.
As Conservative back benchers criticised Sir Edward for his comments yesterday, the deputy leader of the Labour Party Mr John Prescott, rounded on him saying that he had "demolished his own party's negative election campaign."
Sir Edward sparked off the controversy by publicly rebuking the Foreign Secretary, Mr Malcolm Rifkind, for his recent "bridgebuilding" tour of European countries. "I wish that the Foreign Secretary hadn't gone on a tour" Sir Edward said. "What would we say if somebody came to this country and said we will ignore your politicians, your government. . . and just listen to what I have got to say? It would not go down very well."
He disregarded Mr Rifkind's recent comment on the single currency that the government was "on balance . . . hostile," saying that he should listen to the Prime Minister, Mr Major, when he said that the government preferred to wait and see until after the general election.
Ahead of a meeting today when the Conservatives will put the final touches to their manifesto, Sir Edward was asked if he supported a Scottish assembly. He agreed saying that he believed it posed "no danger to the unity of the United Kingdom. None whatsoever." If the Conservatives had been returned to power in 1974, he said, Scottish devolution would the UK as well as of Scotland."
Sir Edward also made clear that his views on the social chapter had been ignored by the government and that Conservative Eurosceptics would continue to look for concessions. And, he added, he was not sure if the government agreed with suggestions that adopting all the recommendations' of the social chapter would lead to 500,000 job losses.
On the issue of the minimum wage, which the government opposes Sir Edward said the important question was not the wage itself but at which level it was fixed. "The purpose is to avoid sweated labour and quite rightly so, he said.
Denouncing Sir Edward as an "unashamed socialist", the right wing Conservative MP, Mr John Carlisle, said: "He is probably the best example of New Labour that there is and the best reason why people should ignore what he has to say.
Meanwhile, in the clearest indication yet that the Conservatives are facing defeat in the Wirral South by election next Thursday, senior Tory members in the constituency have told the government that the result will be "not just bad, but very bad."
The Conservatives won the seat in 1992 with an 8,183 majority. Despite the gloom, the prediction is that if the government does lose the seat on Thursday it could survive, with the help of the Ulster Unionists, until Mr Major's preferred election date of May 1st.