THE British Prime Minister, Mr Major, is preparing to launch his election campaign amid open discussion in his ranks about the leadership contest which would follow a Conservative defeat.
That was the astonishing backdrop last night, as Mr Major arrived for the Conservative Central Council in Bath and a last ditch attempt to restore party morale just days before the expected announcement of the general election date.
While the Chancellor, Mr Kenneth Clarke, proclaimed the Tories would win "by saying what we are going to do and making careful promises we can deliver
Ms Edwina Currie MP was urging Mr Major to go quickly if the Tories lose.
Ms Currie, likely to lose her own marginal seat to Labour, said it would be a "disaster" if Mr Major decided to stay on as leader after an election defeat.
"He would do it for the best of motives," she said: "and the result would be rather like the Maastricht Treaty debate, which went on and on and on and everyone started to tear at each other".
Ms Currie continued: "We ought to have a leadership contest that is over cleanly and quickly.
"Then the new leader, whoever he, or I suppose she, is can get on quickly with the task of uniting the party and preparing it for the next term in parliament.
"I think if there's going to be a leadership contest, please John, please don't make it hang around. Please don't make it wait. Can we please get on with it?"
While the Tory high command was still struggling to dismiss reports that Lady Thatcher was relaxed about the prospects of Mr Tony Blair as prime minister, Ms Currie warned that supporters of potential candidates were already lining up behind the scenes.
And while party managers sought to dismiss noises off stage, the damage of Ms Currie's comments was that they echoed what commentators know to be the private opinions of many Conservative MPs.
With continuing doubt as to whether Mr Major will win the pre election endorsement of the London Times, that paper yesterday devoted a lengthy article to the leadership claims and prospects of eight possible successors to Mr Major.
And the Prime Minister himself was obliged to answer questions about Tory prospects in the event of defeat. Dismissing suggestions that the party would fragment, the Prime Minister said: "I'm not going to get involved with "if" questions.
"There've been problems of this sort in the past. The Conservative Party is a unified party.
"The Conservative Party has a philosophy that binds itself together. It is a way of life. It is a particular instinctive vision of what this country is, and how this country should be run.
"We're not a party bound by written constitutions and old ideological baggage. So this talk that we have is nonsense and it really ought not to be given house room," said Mr Major.