Euro-sceptics spurn appeal for unity

CONSERVATIVES IN BOURNEMOUTH

Tory Euro-sceptics last night attacked Kenneth Clarke, the Chancellor, and called for British membership of a single European currency to be ruled out before the election.

They lined up at fringe meetings at the conference to repudiate John Major's appeal for unity and the agreed Cabinet policy of leaving open the option of joining.

Sharing a platform with Bill Cash and Lord Tebbit, David Heathcoat-Amory, who resigned as a Treasury minister to fight the single currency, led the attacks on his former boss.

"It puzzles me that the Chancellor, who has used interest rates successfully to regulate the British economy, should apparently want to give up that power completely to foreign central bankers," he told the European Foundation and Bruges Group. "That should worry all supporters of Parliamentary democracy "

John Redwood received a standing ovation from more than 400 supporters at a packed fringe meeting after he attacked Emu.

In two other meetings, Michael Howard, Home Secretary, and Michael Portillo, Secretary of State for Defence, both focused on the different political traditions of the UK and the rest of Europe.