Senior Tories said last night that John Major had been persuaded to hold off the election

Senior Tories said last night that John Major had been persuaded to hold off the election until his favoured date of 1 May. The alternative, a snap election on 20 March, was being ruled out because it would smack of panic, and the voters would regard it as a piece of political chicanery to avoid the embarrassment of this month’s Wirral South by-election.
But the decision will become clear, either way, by next Wednesday, when the Prime Minister would have to announce his intention to call a March poll. That would be the last moment at which he could avert the anticipated defeat in Wirral South, and give ministers just two days in which to salvage the bare minimum of their legislative programme.A March election would require the dissolution of Parliament the following Monday, 24 February – three days before the by-election.But Labour agreement would be required for any legislation that was going to be rushed on to the statute book before dissolution took place. Mr Major’s senior advisers do not favour the appearance of panic entailed in that option.Ruling out 20 March will switch feverish Westminster speculation to the next favoured bet, 10 April. However, it emerged yesterday that the April option would not eliminate the Wirral South by- election – one of the prime reasons for calling an early general election in the first place.According to election law, the April election would require dissolution of Parliament on 12 March. The result of the Wirral South by-election will be declared in good time for the new MP to take his seat in the Commons on Monday 3 March.Some ministers and MPs have argued that if Mr Major announced his intention to call an April election on 24 February – three days before the by-election – that would be enough to get the by-election called off.But that decision would be in the hands of Phil Manson, Wirral South’s acting returning officer, and all the indications yesterday were that Mr Manson would feel legally obliged to continue with the by-election.If Mr Major cannot be certain of getting the by-election called off, colleagues said yesterday, he would be better off soldiering on until 1 May.

“Things cannot get worse,” one senior colleague said yesterday – although other Conservative MPs were not so optimistic.A Labour victory in the by-election would again drive the Government into a parliamentary minority – opening the way for a no-confidence vote. While a defeat for the Government would precipitate a general election, there would be little point in the exercise if Mr Major made an announcement of his firm intention to hold the election on 1 May, with dissolution of Parliament on 8 April.. The Social Security Minister Andrew Mitchell has escaped severe censure from a Commons committee investigating his role in the cash for questions affair. The decision saves Mr Mitchell from the fate suffered by David Willetts, the Government whip who was forced to resign last year after the same committee accused him of “dissembling”.

The Commons Standards and Privileges Committee, which examines disciplinary complaints, last night agreed a report into an allegation that Mr Mitchell exerted improper influence when he served as a Government whip on the old Commons Committee on Members’ Interests.
It had been claimed that Mr Mitchell – like Mr Willetts – had attempted to subvert an inquiry into an allegation that his fellow Tory MP Neil Hamilton had accepted cash for asking parliamentary questions. Last night’s report is thought to have concluded that Mr Mitchell behaved “inappropriately”.But the strongest criticism was said to have been diverted, and directed at Richard Ryder, the former Government Chief Whip, for allowing Mr Mitchell, one of his team, to be placed on the Members’ Interests Committee in the first place.Mr Ryder, who is standing down from Parliament at the election, was said last night to be unconcerned by the criticism. One friend said, quite rightly, that it was not Mr Ryder who had placed Mr Mitchell on the committee – but the Commons itself.Mr Mitchell is thought to have “saved” himself from severe censure by taking a more apologetic tone than Mr Willetts when he was questioned – on oath – in a public hearing on 20 January.He told the Standards and Privileges Committee that “with hindsight” it would be better if government whips did not sit on committees which have a quasi-judicial role. Mr Mitchell acknowledged that there had been a potential conflict of interest between his job as a whip and his membership of the Members’ Interests Committee.Appointed to the committee in June 1994, Mr Mitchell said in evidence that he had not appreciated that it sat in a quasi-judicial capacity; making judgement on colleagues’ conduct.The report, which is expected to be published tomorrow, is thought to endorse that view.But it was also said to accept that there was no evidence of a whips’ office conspiracy to rig the Hamilton investigation.. Teachers whose pupils fail to match up to national standards may be sacked under new government measures designed to increase parent power announced yesterday by the Prime Minister.

Schools will have to report to parents on whether they are meeting national targets and there will be more league tables, Mr Major said as the pre- election battle over education intensified.
Both the main parties claimed that the other was stealing their ideas on how to raise standards. Labour said John Major had done a U-turn on target-setting which it had backed for several years. The Prime Minister accused Labour of playing “catch-up” politics.Ministerial announcements came tumbling out of Whitehall and Westminster. A press briefing by Gillian Shephard, the Secretary of State for Education, on the strengthening of A-levels, was overshadowed by another at Conservative Central Office where the Prime Minister, backed by Mrs Shephard, disclosed the new league table plans.Teacher unions described the decision to appraise teachers partly by their pupils’ test and exam results as “the policy of the madhouse”.