PR advocates fear tactical error by Clarke on seats: Boundary commission inquiry 'will hurt Government's Euro election campaign'

TORY SUPPORTERS believe the Government is risking disrupting its European election campaign with a decision to set up a boundary commission inquiry into six new seats.

Kenneth Clarke, the Home Secretary, has rejected demands to allow the voters to use proportional representation for the additional European seats, to be fought next year.

Peter Lloyd, the Home Office minister, is expected to announce tomorrow the establishment of a commission to decide on the boundaries for the new seats.

A former Tory MP, Keith Best, chairman of Conservative Action for Electoral Reform, said: 'It is going to be enormously disruptive to say to sitting MEPs that you are going to gain from neighbouring territory. Technically, there should be new selections for all the candidates in all the seats affected by the changes. I would call 'foul' if I was involved.'

The Prime Minister will be seeking to confirm his European credentials by a good Tory showing in the polls to expunge memories of the disastrously negative Tory campaign under Baroness Thatcher's leadership.

But Mr Best and the handful of other supporters of PR in the Tory party believe that Mr Clarke's rejection of PR for the European elections could prove a costly mistake. Mr Best is pressing the Government to think again and avoid the disruption by allowing the six new seats to be elected by PR, on the existing boundaries.

Tony Blair, the shadow Home Secretary, demanded an additional seat in Scotland, where Labour is strong, one in Wales and four in England. Mr Clarke is insisting on five in England, one in Wales, and no extra seats for Scotland. Labour supporters of PR are angry that Mr Blair did not insist that the six seats should be fought on PR when he met Mr Clarke to put Labour's case. Labour's Plant commission on electoral reform later recommended that Labour backs PR for European elections.

Support for PR within Conservative ranks remains weak. When he was party chairman, Chris Patten described the Liberal Democrat commitment to electoral reform as 'old-fashioned self-interest dressed up as high principle'.

But Mr Patten once supported PR. Now Governor of Hong Kong, Mr Patten explained his reasons for changing his mind at a recent private dinner in London.

Mr Patten, then head of the Tory party research department, had been in favour of PR in the 1970s, when the Conservatives were in Opposition, because it seemed the best way of defeating socialism and matching the political and economic stability of West Germany.

Since then, he said, he had become impressed with the stability achieved by the successive Thatcher governments.

Douglas Hurd, the Foreign Secretary, is the only Cabinet minister who supports PR, but his convictions carry no weight with Mr Clarke. A spokesman for the Home Office said Mr Clarke had 'ruled out' PR for next year's European elections, despite pressure from the European Parliament. 'It is not an option,' he said. That attitude was confirmed in a letter to Hugh Dykes, Tory chairman of the European Movement.