MPs voice new fears for British troops in Bosnia

Inside Parliament Major stresses that all-out war will mean UN withdrawal Labour anger over Churchill papers and the National Lottery

The resumption of hostilities in the Balkans prompted MPs to talk once again of a withdrawal of British troops. John Major warned that a return to "all-out war" would make the position of UN troops untenable and Malcolm Rifkind, the Defence Secretary, called on all parties in former Yugoslavia to show restraint.

With UN staff caught up in fighting between Croatia and Serb rebels and the ceasefire in Bosnia increasingly fragile, Paddy Ashdown, a regular visitor to the region, raised the issue with the Prime Minister at Question Time. "If this conflict is not disastrously to spread, then it is vital and urgent that the international community uses every effort to ensure that the second front of confrontation now opened up in Croatia is closed down as soon as possible," the Liberal Democrat leader said.

Mr Major agreed it was a "serious and grave" situation. For two years, UN forces had helped to limit the conflict both in Croatia and Bosnia, he said.

But Mr Major went on: "I warned over a month ago that if we returned to all-out war, it could make the position of the UN protection forces absolutely untenable - and I repeat that warning today. Neither in Croatia nor in Bosnia will renewed fighting produce a satisfactory settlement or, indeed, any settlement of any sort."

Earlier Mr Rifkind assured the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, Menzies Campbell, that he did not "envisage any unilateral action by the UK to withdraw from Bosnia". The question of a continuing UN presence was ultimately for the Security Council and national governments, based on the advice of commanders on the ground. Mr Campbell said: "So complicated and hazardous will be any withdrawal, that it is inconceivable that UK forces could be withdrawn unilaterally."

Jacques Arnold, Conservative MP for Gravesham, wanted to know at what point it would no longer be possible for British troops to carry out their humanitarian role and safety requirements meant they should be withdrawn.

Mr Rifkind said the contribution of British and other Unprofor forces was both in the humanitarian area and in preventing the spread of the conflict to Macedonia, Kosovo and other parts of the Balkans "which could have even more terrifying consequences".

"We will continue to judge the British presence in Bosnia on the basis of whether they can carry out their mandate and whether they can do so without unacceptable risk to their safety."

Mr Major was obliged once again to defend the decision to use £12.5m of National Lottery cash to purchase the papers of Sir Winston Churchill.

The wartime leader's grandson, Winston Churchill, MP for Davyhulme, sat smiling - as well he might - as the Prime Minister insisted lottery money did go to "very good causes".

Paul Flynn, Labour MP for Newport West, said a letter from a constituent expressed the view of millions of people about the affair when the man said he would never again buy a National Lottery ticket. "How, he asks, can the nation gain £14m worth of value by buying papers, without copyright, many of which papers we already own?"

Cheered on by party colleagues, Mr Flynn demanded a guarantee that National Lottery money "will go to genuine good causes of health, education and crime prevention and not go to the rich and greedy".

Mr Major said the MP was wrong in asserting the papers were already owned by the state. "What were purchased were the non-state papers."

Lynn Jones, Labour MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, said a large proportion of the 0.8 per cent economic growth in the first three months of this year was attributable not to manufacturing but the sale of lottery tickets. Prompting a prime ministerial rebuff of "Come off it", she asked if he was concerned that the use of Lottery money "to enrich one, maybe two, Tory MPs is putting the faltering recovery in jeopardy".

Amid talk of wars present and past, Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington North, cast forward, offering an out-of-fashion solution for avoiding Armageddon.

One of Labour's unreconstructed unilateralists, he asked Mr Rifkind for what possible purpose Britain maintained nuclear weapons and against whom they were directed.

"Holding nuclear weapons is expensive, immoral and unjustifiable and the only way that Britain can look the rest of the world in the eye in the year in which the Non-Proliferation Treaty is up for renegotiation is by a programme of removing all nuclear weapons and bases from this country," Mr Corbyn said. To Tory amusement, Mr Rifkind replied that the MP's views very carefully reflected those of Tony Blair - 15 years ago.

Moving on to the civil nuclear business, the Government defeated a cross- party move to force it to seek final parliamentary approval before partially privatising the industry's watchdog body. Voting against an amendment, tabled by Robert Jackson, a former Tory science minister whose constituency includes the Harwell research establishment, was 266 to 229 during the report stage of the Atomic Energy Authority Bill. The Bill was later given a Third Reading by 284 to 246 and now goes to the Lords.