Labour wary of Unionist tactics

IRISH PEACE CRISIS: Blair doubts ability of Ulster MPs to bring down Go vernment as Protestant population remains open-minded

Labour went out of its way yesterday to dampen speculation about an early general election in the face of a threat by angry Ulster Unionists to withdraw their parliamentary support for the Government.

The move came as fresh expressions of outrage by senior Unionist MPs at draft Anglo-Irish plans for new cross-border bodies were reinforced by the disclosure that James Moly-neaux, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, had told constituency parties at theweekend to select general election candidates in seats where there were no sitting MPs.

Senior Labour sources said the party was sceptical that the threat to the Government would precipitate a collapse, given that even the party's nine Euro-rebels would probably support the Government on a Labour motion of no confidence.

David Trimble, Ulster Unionist MP for Upper Bann, said yesterday that his party would accept cross-border co-operation on a limited case-by-case basis but utterly rejected a joint political authority with strong powers.

"If the policy of this government is to try and persuade, cajole or lean on Ulster Unionists towards accepting some form of all-Ireland political institution as an embryonic all-Ireland state, it would be impossible for us to continue to support them," he said on television.

Dr Marjorie Mowlam, shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, reiterated Labour's support for the Government on the peace process, saying if the party had to choose between peace and bringing down the Government, the peace process would be paramount. But she said Labour would "support a vote against the Government which is not [to do with] the peace process".

Labour seeks Ulster Unionist and Conservative rebel support to overturn plans to cut income support for mortgage payers who lose their jobs.

Tony Blair, the Labour leader, has repositioned his party's policy on Northern Ireland's future, making the prospect of a Labour election victory less intimidating to some Unionists, while Dr Mowlam has built up personal relations with Ulster Unionists. While reasserting Labour's policy of Irish unity by consent, she yesterday added that Labour would not be "persuaders for one outcome or the other".

But while recognising the instability caused by the unrest of the Ulster Unionists and the possibility of accidents leading to the Government's fall, the Labour view is that the Government may well preserve its majority without Unionist support.

The threat of withdrawal of support increases the chance that the Tories will face more Commons defeats. But the Government is not likely to repeat its strategy over the European Finance Bill by making a specific legislative measure an issue of confidence. If Labour were to put down a no-confidence motion after a government defeat, it guesses that the whipless Euro-rebels would not risk an election because of the risk to their own seats, which they would have to fight without the support of the party machine.

Michael Mates a former Northern Ireland minister, said it would be foolish for any party to play political games when so much was at stake and accused some Unionists of displaying attitudes similar to those that had held up progress towards peace for many years.