At present, 10 per cent of the parliamentary party must notify the 1922 chairman that they want a contest.The insistence of Sir Marcus and at least one senior colleague that the examination would not be hurried, makes it possible the rules could remain intact until after the election.. He said: “There is a case about whether it is right that when we are in government, we should have a challenge every year to the Prime Minister when he is in office.”The feeling among some is that it’s quite different when you are in opposition. But in government, it’s confusing, to put it mildly, and debilitating [to have a leadership contest].”Sir Marcus has been briefed by his predecessor Sir Cranley Onslow on the issues examined by the 1922 Committee executive when it changed the rules for leadership contests after the fall of Baroness Thatcher in 1990. But other members of the committee, particularly on the party’s right wing, are highly sceptical of the desirability of a rule change which they believe could simply be a manoeuvre to eliminate any possibility of an 11th-hour challenge to Mr Major before the general election.Sir Marcus acknowledged that a further challenge in 1996 was theoretically possible, but said he was sure one would not take place because it would be “ludicrous” for the party to split in the run-up to a general election. A small sub-committee of senior officers of the committee is expected to be set up shortly to examine the procedures for electing party leaders.But as Sir Marcus warned in a BBC Radio interview yesterday that the committee would not reach a hasty decision, it became clear that the committee executive is divided over whether a further change in the rules is desirable.At least one member of the executive is expected to argue that the present system, under which a leader can be challenged from within his own party whether or not he is an elected Prime Minister, should be radically reformed. DONALD MACINTYRE

Political Editor
Sharp differences have emerged within the Tory Party over whether rule changes which could make it impossible for John Major to be challenged again as Tory leader are desirable; proposals are to be examined by leading backbenchers.Sir Marcus Fox, chairman of the 1922 committee, confirmed yesterday it was planning to re-examine the rules.

The party hopes to attract 1,200 people to a meeting in Derby on Thursday. A business breakfast in the east Midlands is planned for Friday, followed by a meeting with parents.. But this year’s series of meetings and discussions, under the rubric “Britain’s people; Britain’s future” and planned to run until the autumn, are intended to be far more in-depth than the 1993 tour resulting in the book Beyond Westminster.The Labour leader, Tony Blair, is conducting a similar exercise. Siren voices from the extreme left, and indeed from the right, may urge us to side track, to move away from One Nation policies, but we must remain true to our long-standing beliefs.”. Paddy Ashdown, the Liberal Democrat leader, will next month embark on a round-Britain tour in a bid to raise his party’s profile in the run-up to the next election, writes Patricia Wynn Davies. The visits to 12 Liberal Democrat target areas, including the West Country, Liverpool, Sheffield, Tyneside and Edinburgh, follow private polling in the regions showing government popularity at rock bottom.
But the research also showed that while people felt betrayed and let down, they also felt nervous about change.Mr Ashdown will use the inaugural Liberal Democrat News lecture next Monday to issue a rallying call for pluralism, arguing that the Opposition has a responsibility not only to bring about the defeat of a discredited government, but to build “consensus” about the nature of the alternative and ensure it is long lasting.It will be the second time Mr Ashdown has taken his cause away from Westminster to the country.

“That has done a great deal to undermine the social fabric of society.” The Tory approach provided the answer. “Of course we must allow the market to produce the wealth, but so that we can then afford the social policies that enable us fundamentally to ensure that we are one nation.”Mr Hunt said that the centre ground was the territory on which the Tories had won successive elections “We must never surrender our election-winning strategy. “That has been very much the theme running through my strong belief in Conservatism and Christian democracy. One Nation Toryism isn’t the possession of the left, the centre or the right. It is fundamental to Conservatism.”Mr Hunt said that, coming from Wirral on Merseyside, he cared very much about unemployment. The area had had a very high level of unemployment for far too long. The Bill was given a second reading by 309 votes to 274.Mr Hunt recalled the seminal One Nation pamphlet published in the 1950s by a group including Edward Heath, Iain Macleod and Enoch Powell, and quoted Disraeli’s abhorrence of two nations – “rich and poor” – in ignorance of each other.

Another Tory backbencher, Tim Yeo, also praised the “One Nation Budget”, though the description did not seem to have occurred to William Waldegrave, the Chief Secretary, who opened the debate. The former Welsh secretary drew particular attention to the One Nation leanings of Kenneth Clarke.Congratulating Mr Clarke on a “One Nation Budget”, he said: “I recall on a previous occasion the Chancellor said thatone of his clear objectives was to ensure we don’t have developing within the United Kingdom the sort of underclass that we have seen in the United States.”The Budget did much to ensure that would not happen, Mr Hunt said. I believe that the Prime Minister [and indeed myself] are certainly One Nation Tories, but equally certainly we are not in favour of European federalism,” Sir Terence said.Lady Thatcher, reasserting her right-wing, Eurosceptic creed last Thursday, dismissed those she once regarded as wets as Euro-federalists who wanted “no-nation Conservatism”.Mr Hunt emphasised the need to ensure that unemployment did not undermine the social fabric of Britain and urged Tory colleagues to be more positive about the European Union. Quentin Davies, MP for Stamford and Spalding, described Lady Thatcher as a “great personage in her decline”, while former Treasury minister Sir Terence Higgins, MP for Worthing, said he found it “very sad” that Lady Thatcher had become extremely out of touch.”She now seems even to confuse One Nation Toryism with an enthusiasm for European federalism This isn’t the case. In a clear response to Baroness Thatcher’s right-wing rallying call of last week, Mr Hunt urged the party not to be side-tracked by “siren voices” but to remain true to One Nation policies.
Using a debate on the Finance Bill, which implements the Budget, as a platform, other Tory backbenchers joined the criticisms of their former leader. Children spend most of their time at home and their role models are their parents. Their ideas of right and wrong are formed before they arrive at school.