London - The image of Britain's Labour government as united took a battering yesterday when a minister declared he would take part in a protest march denounced hours earlier by one of his colleagues.
The Countryside March is expected to bring 150,000 rural dwellers to London tomorrow to protest about issues ranging from the closure of village schools to moves to ban some kinds of hunting.
"There is no doubt in our mind that there are attempts to hijack it [the march] by the blood sports lobby and even by the Conservative Party, and of course we can't be involved in that," junior Agriculture Minister Mr Elliot Morley told BBC radio.
Later, a spokesman for the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, said the Environment Minister, Mr Michael Meacher, would join the march.