MPs angry at minister opposing daylight Bill

COLIN BROWN

Chief Political Correspondent

Michael Forsyth, the Secretary of State for Scotland, is facing angry Tory backbench protests over his efforts to kill a Private Members' Bill to provide more daylight hours by putting British clocks forward an hour.

John Butterfill, the Tory MP for Bournemouth West, promoting the Bill, appealed personally to the Prime Minister at a Downing Street meeting to stop the Government allowing it to be killed on its second reading on 19 January in the Commons.

John Major refused to offer any assurance that the Bill will be allowed to go through to the committee stage. The Scottish ministers are preparing to vote against it, and all other ministers have been ordered to abstain.

Although the Bill has cross-party support, there is strong opposition from MPs who warn it would mean millions of workers and schoolchildren starting out in the dark in the mornings.

The Communication Workers Union, representing 120,000 post deliverers, has urged MPs to vote against it and yesterday protested to the Advertising Standards Authority over claims that it would save lives.

Mr Forsyth has made his opposition to the British Time (Extra Daylight) Bill clear. He took the unusual step of issuing a statement challenging statistics from the Department of Transport suggesting more daylight hours would reduce accidents.

"It is misleading of proponents of John Butterfill's Bill to claim that there would be a significant reduction in road- accident casualties," he said.

But Mr Butterfill said a study by Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh showed the DoT figures were sound.