Backbenchers conceal divisions

THE CLOSING of ranks by the 1922 Committee last night concealed the divisions at the highest levels of the Tory back benches which have helped to destabilise John Major's position.

'The executive of the 1922 Committee is split right down the middle,' one of the executive officers said.

'It is no longer the Prime Minister's praetorian guard. It has ceased to function as a sounding board of the party, as it used to be. But what we do about it, I don't know.'

The Norman Lamont resignation speech risks opening the party to internecine war in the autumn when the key backbench posts, including the officers of the 1922 Committee, are up for re-election.

The right complained about Mr Major's key advisers responsible for advising him to sack Mr Lamont: Sir Norman Fowler, the party chairman, and Richard Ryder, the Chief Whip. Some were also critical of Sarah Hogg, the head of Mr Major's policy unit at Downing Street.

Nicholas Winterton, the anti-Maastricht Tory MP for Macclesfield, said: 'Everything is there to be grabbed. John Major can recover if he learns by the lesson of yesterday - perhaps if he looks to dismiss people like Sarah Hogg who have been giving him some bad advice, and the speech writers.'

They were the subject of Mr Lamont's barb that Mr Major listened 'too much to pollsters and the party managers'.

The main target for the centre-left Tory MPs is Sir George Gardiner, the MP for Reigate, a mild-mannered former political correspondent with the reputation of being a Machiavellian figure. He is the chairman of the Thatcherite 92 Group of Tory MPs, responsible for organising the 'slate' of candidates for Commons committees. 'He's finished. He's got about 30 votes, that's all,' one former minister said.

Members of the 92 Group, named after 92 Cheyne Walk in west London where it used to meet, have many of the key committee chairmanships. The 92 Group has about half of the seats on the 1922 Committee, including Sir George, James Pawsey, Sir Rhodes Boyson, and John Townend, who also won the chairmanship of the backbench finance committee, an important platform for Tory opinion.

Some, who pleaded with Margaret Thatcher not to step down, quickly became disenchanted with Mr Major's style of leadership. They are now dismayed that the reshuffle has promoted Kenneth Clarke to the Treasury instead of the Thatcherite's candidate, Michael Howard. They believe that Mr Clarke is too liberal and are ready to oppose any move by him to ease cuts in public expenditure by raising taxes.

Since being promoted to Home Secretary, Mr Howard has been busy consolidating support on the right. He was the guest at a dinner hosted by the Thatcherite No Turning Back group. But that tends to be more interested in policy than power.

Sir Edward Heath is among the senior Tory backbenchers who are now complaining privately that the influence of the Thatcherite factions in the 92 Group and the 1922 Committee are damaging Mr Major.