Inside Parliament: Patten endures trial by tormentor: 'Roaming' MP makes well-timed arrival - Backbench Bill seeks to outlaw 'fattism'

John Patten, Secretary of State for Education, will not account yesterday among his better Commons days. Not only did he have to introduce a much watered- down version of his Education Bill but, at 5pm, the grinning red face of David Evans appeared on the benches behind him.

The arrival of Mr Evans, right-wing MP for Welwyn and Hatfield and self-appointed voice of the Tory terraces, was hardly likely to go unnoticed. His call on John Major to sack half-a-dozen Cabinet ministers, including Mr Patten, had coloured both the Second Reading debate on the Bill and Question Time.

Max Madden, Labour MP for Bradford West, rose on a point of order to warn the Secretary of State that Mr Evans was 'roaming about' on the backbenches, apparently promoting his campaign. Mr Patten took a close interest in a file of press cuttings being thumbed by a junior minister as, for five minutes, Mr Evans chatted to fellow backbenchers before slipping out - a little more embarrassment inflicted.

Ann Taylor, Labour's education spokeswoman, predicted Mr Patten would be gone before the Conservative conference, sparing him the ordeal of explaining to the faithful how he had fallen short on his promise to smash the National Union of Students.

The climbdown by the Government over student unions was 'the most humiliating aspect of the whole sorry saga of the Bill', Mrs Taylor said. Mr Patten's last two conference speeches had been 'high on hype about the evils of students' unions'.

But with defeat looming in the Lords, strongly influenced by university vice-chancellors and principals, the Bill was diluted to provide only for the principle of voluntary membership and a code of standards in union affairs, which the NUS accepted.

'It would have been rather enjoyable to see the Secretary of State at this year's party conference defending what he has done. However, it doesn't look as if he will be there,' Mrs Taylor said. Opposition criticism now centres on the Bill's provisions on teacher training.

Mr Patten promised he would reverse Lords' defeats intended to limit school-centred teacher training. He dismissed a suggestion by Mrs Taylor that he should have a long-term plan for school-based teacher training and an estimate of the overall number of teachers needed, as 'the gauleiter approach to education'.

But the training proposals also have Tory critics. Richard Tracey, MP for Surbition, emphasised the need for a balance. 'Parents may be alarmed at too many student teachers being brought into schools and children being subjected to too much teaching of teachers going on in front of them.'

Entry into teaching, or any other job, could not, in future, be denied on the grounds that the applicant is too fat, under an anti-discrimination measure by Tony Banks, Labour MP for Newham NW. Unfortunately for fat people hoping to join Virgin Airlines, for example, his backbench Bill stands virtually no chance of becoming law. Mr Banks said that a Virgin spokeswoman had told one of his researchers: 'We have an image to keep up and we only like to hire young thin men and women.' So, too, did other employers, though they rarely admitted it. 'Most fat people I know are naturally jolly and kind and are only made unhappy and guilty by what is considered to be the tyranny of thin people and fashion,' the MP said.

He, too, advised Mr Major on sackings - Michael Howard, Home Secretary, Michael Portillo, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and John Redwood, Welsh Secretary. All three were assumed to be among those the Prime Minister dubbed 'bastards' and all three were 'thin and exceeding mean'.

Exploiting Tory divisions for his Question Time sally, John Smith, the Labour leader, said it was 'quite extraordinary' that, even before the local election campaign was over, a senior member of the Tory backbench 1922 committee, Mr Evans, should demand 'on grounds of incompetence' the resignation of the party chairman, Sir Norman Fowler, and the Environment Secretary, John Gummer.

'Unlike Mr Smith, I do not face senior members of my party emigrating to New Zealand,' the Prime Minister hit back. (Former Shadow cabinet member Bryan Gould is leaving British politics for his native land). 'The whole Cabinet is completely determined to carry through the programme on which we were elected and we propose to do so.'

But Mr Smith wondered why, if the Cabinet was so united, Mr Major did not remind some members occasionally to demonstrate it in their public utterances. 'Whilst ministers are permitted by the Prime Minister to squabble and plot as they please is he not surprised that public confidence in his government has almost completely broken down? If he can't control his own Cabinet, is it any wonder that we doubt if he can run the country?'

Alan Beith, the Liberal Democrats' economics spokesman, asked if it remained government policy that participation in a single European currency was not ruled out but would be decided at a later stage. 'If that is so, how can the Prime Minister have a senior Treasury minister (Mr Portillo) who believes and states that to go into a single currency would involve giving up the government of the UK?'

In something of a rebuke for 'the young pretender', as Mr Beith called him, Mr Major said that Mr Portillo had made clear he fully supported the Cabinet policy on a single currency.