LONDON -- Playing a high-stakes game to try to whip his own back-bench critics into line, Prime Minister John Major said yesterday that his Conservative government would resign and would call a new election if it failed to win a parliamentary vote Monday on payments to the European Union.
The move was intended to overcome a rebellion by so-called Euro-skeptics in the party, those who are fighting to prevent Britain from merging into Europe, as called for by the Maastricht Treaty on European Union.
The rebels, who have bedeviled Mr. Major's efforts to rule gracefully for two years now, have seized upon what had looked like a perfunctory vote on Britain's contribution to the European Union budget and turned it into a full-fledged crisis for the government.
The government countered by turning the vote into an all-or-nothing showdown. Earlier this week, Mr. Major had said the issue was one of confidence. Yesterday, after consulting with his Cabinet, his office released a statement saying that they would rise or fall together -- a proposition labeled by the news media as a "suicide pact." "If the government were defeated, the government would resign and the prime minister would ask the queen to dissolve Parliament," the statement said.
"They confirmed their unanimous agreement that this is a matter of confidence in the government," the statement continued, referring to the ministers. "The bill implements an international commitment given with full Cabinet backing." The threat to call an election is a powerful one because the Tories, in power now for 15 years, would undoubtedly lose if one were held right away.
The latest poll, published in the Times of London yesterday, shows that a modest recovery for the Conservatives in the autumn has been reversed. The party is supported by only 24 percent of the 1,833 adults sampled by MORI, Britain's top pollster. The opposition Labor Party has a 31-point advantage.
So in effect, Mr. Major is threatening the Conservative back-benchers that, like Sampson, he can bring the temple smashing down on all their heads. The fact that the Cabinet was said to be unanimously behind the move was intended to head off suggestions that, if Mr. Major were defeated Monday, he could simply be replaced as party leader and prime minister, with no general election.
Reuters quoted a senior government official as scotching speculation that some right-wing Cabinet members were withholding full support. "There is no question of the prime minister's resigning and an alternative prime minister being found," the official said.
A spokesman for the prime minister predicted Wednesday that the government's bill would go through and added that in two weeks' time "everyone will wonder what the fuss was about."
Mr. Major has a slender majority of 14 in the 651-member House of Commons. On votes such as this one, he can usually count on the support of the Ulster Unionist Party, which has nine votes. That means that a dozen or so must defect from the two parties, or more if some of those defectors simply abstain.
Still, a leading Euro-skeptic, William Cash, insisted that he was going to propose an amendment to the bill, one that would hold up the budget contribution until the Commons Public Accounts Committee is satisfied about spending procedure in the European Union. He said that he had some 15 votes from fellow Conservatives to back it.