THE British Prime Minister, Mr Major, yesterday ruled out speculation about his government being forced out of office before May, despite losing his Commons majority after Thursday's defeat in the Barnsley East by-election.
Mr Major, in Dublin for the EU summit, said he would not change the date of the election believed to be planned for May 1st - but urged his MPs to "behave".
The Tories, who came second in Barnsley East at the last election, were beaten into third place by the Liberal Democrats.
The result left the 323 MPs taking the Tory whip exactly equal to the combined opposition strength.
However, Mr Major is now effectively at the head of a minority government. Last week, a Tory backbencher, Sir John Gorst, announced that the government could no longer count on his support because of plans affecting a hospital in his Hendon North constituency. Labour also held on to its Merseyside West seat in the European Parliament after the lowest parliamentary electoral turnout since the second World War.
Just 11.4 per cent of the constituency's 515,549 voters took part in Thursday's poll. Yesterday, cabinet ministers insisted the government could soldier on, and held out the prospect of voters returning to the Tory fold in time for a general election victory.
But the Labour leader, Mr Tony Blair, also in Dublin, declared: "The government majority has gone and we will continue to pile on the pressure until the government has gone too.
Labour also renewed pressure on the government to name the day for the by-election in Wirral South, where it believes it can pick up another seat from the Conservatives.
Mr David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, yesterday declined to offer Labour the support of his nine-strong party to get rid of the government.
He stuck to his usual position, saying his party would vote on each issue in the Commons according to its merits and said Mr Blair knew this.
Meanwhile, it was disclosed last night that the Labour Party worker at the centre of the Today programme poll-rigging allegations is a civil servant at the Ministry of Agriculture.
A spokesman confirmed that Ms Jules Hurry was an official in the department but was currently on special unpaid leave.
Ms Hurry's name appeared on a memorandum circulated by a Labour Party unit encouraging party members to nominate Mr Blair as the BBC Radio 4 current affairs programme's Personality of the Year.