there is a case for it,” the Foreign Secretary said.
He added in evidence to the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, repeating the point later in yesterday’s Commons European Union debate: “The Prime Minister has made it clear in several public statements that he doesn’t rule that out.”Mr Hurd said the arguments for and against a referendum cut across the arguments for and against a single currency. A Foreign Office source emphasised that the issue was ultimately one for the Prime Minister. “I do see arguments for a referendum on this subject if the British Government came to the conclusion that a single currency was in the national interest … The prospect of a Tory manifesto pledge to hold a referendum on joining a single currency drew closer yesterday as the idea received firm support from Douglas Hurd, one of John Major’s closest Cabinet allies. The charge from George Robertson came as Lord Nolan’s committee on standards in public life announced that Monday’s Black report, accusing the council of nepotism, religious prejudice and unfair spending, would form part of the evidence for a future examination of local government.
Ian Lang, Secretary of State for Scotland, wrote to Lord Nolan yesterday urging him to take the matter up.Mr Lang is still considering whether he can order a formal and statutory inquiry, which Labour has urged him to mount under section 211 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act.Mr Robertson accused Mr Lang of pulling a “cheap stunt” to refer the local council to the Nolan committee when the Cabinet had stopped it looking into party political funding.Mr Robertson also protested in the House of Commons over John Major’s claim that Mr Robertson had “consistently” refused to make public Labour’s 1992-93 report into the Monklands affair.Mr Robertson said the report had been published in 1993 and was made available to press.. Public sector pay increases will have to be paid out of productivity gains, threatening renewed tension with the unions, as the election draws nearer.. The row over allegations of corruption in Monklands District Council intensified yesterday as the shadow Scottish secretary accused the Prime Minister of misleading MPs by claiming Labour had suppressed its own report into the affair, writes Patricia Wynn Davies.

Other areas, such as defence, have already delivered cuts, and to go further would invite a backbench rebellion.Gillian Shepherd, the Education Secretary, is arguing for an increase of up to pounds 1bn to pay for the commitment to avoid any repeat of the threat of teacher redundancies, and to introduce a nursery school voucher scheme.Virginia Bottomley’s health budget is protected by a manifesto pledge to increase spending on the NHS in real terms each year. Michael Howard, the Home Secretary, is seeking to underpin the Government’s law and order pledges with more money for police.Mr Clarke will lay it on the line to the potential rebels that they cannot have tax cuts without cutting public expenditure. Mr Aitken is resisting a bid for an increase in spending by John Gummer, Secretary of State for the Environment, to implement a housing white paper, which will propose grants to tenants of housing associations to buy their homes at market values.The right-wing’s prime target for cuts, the social security budget, is being squeezed by Peter Lilley, the Secretary of State, but ministers fear deeper cuts would prove more electorally damaging. It is unlikely the Treasury will seek to lower the ceiling, but additional bids made by ministers to Jonathan Aitken, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, will mean cuts in programmes.The Treasury is seeking further cuts in the roads budget by Brian Mawhinney, Secretary of State for Transport. The spending ceiling planned a year ago for 1996-97 is pounds 263.5bn, 41.75 per cent of GDP.That amounts to an increase of pounds 8bn or 0.5 per cent growth in real terms. He is not prepared to adopt “quick fixes”, Whitehall sources said.Downing Street cast doubt on the accuracy of Department of Environment figures showing that the number of households suffering negative equity had risen by almost one-third to nearly 900,000 in the first quarter of this year.But the backbench MPs believe help for home-buyers is vital to establish confidence in the Government and rekindle hope of a “feel-good” factor before the general election.Mr Clarke will tell the Cabinet this morning, when it carries out its annual pre- Budget review of spending, that he will expect support for a continued squeeze on public sector expenditure from ministerial colleagues and the backbench critics calling for tax cuts in his November Budget.

Officers of the 1922 Committee will tell the Prime Minister that reviving the housing market is emerging as one of the priorities for action among party rank and file.Mr Major will lose more support if he fails to respond to their demands, but the Chancellor has made it clear he will resist the pressure for a reversal of his policy on mortgage tax relief.Kenneth Clarke is sceptical about ways of helping homeowners who have found their mortgages are higher than the value of their homes. It includes demands for tougher measures on law and order, and a return to the Government’s tax cutting priorities.A committee of Tory backbenchers found widespread concern within the party at the damage done to the Government’s support by cuts in the mortgage tax relief from 25 per cent to 15 per cent. The executive of the 1922 Committee of Tory MPs will throw its weight behind the demands led by Baroness Thatcher for the value of mortgage tax relief to be restored as part of a strategy for winning back disillusioned Tory voters with a return to core policies.
They want special help for first-time buyers in a package of proposals to be sent to the Prime Minister after being approved by backbenchers tonight. Senior Tory backbenchers will put pressure on the Chancellor today to increase mortgage tax relief for home-owners as the Cabinet meets to maintain the squeeze on public expenditure. Anyway, being better educated is an overall advantage to society as a whole as well as to the individual,” she said.. “The result in financial services is an increasing polarisation, with several different layers of graduate recruitment,” he said.Margaret Wallis, president of the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services, said there was some danger that graduates could be exploited in low-paid jobs.”We hope that the majority of these people will move into more traditional graduate employment.

While mainstream graduate recruits to managerial and professional jobs could expect to earn up to pounds 19,000 a year in banks and building societies, those taking non-graduate jobs earned only pounds 8,000.The report’s author, Geoff Mason, said graduates’ skills tended to be better used in manufacturing but that most jobs were in service industries. Another said some of today’s graduates seemed less ambitious than those who used to be recruited: “They adapt quickly and pick up skills but they don’t seem to have any urgency to move on,” he said.The institute talked to eight companies employing up to 5,500 people in the steel industry plus six banks and six building societies employing up to 118,000 staff.With almost one in three young people going to university compared with one in eight in the early 1980s, it found many could no longer find a “graduate” job. Some still found work in middle management or in professional jobs but others took whatever work they could get.As many as 45 per cent of graduates taking jobs in the financial services sector were put into positions for which a degree was not required, it found.One employer is quoted in the report as saying that such jobs are “very suitable for a 2.2 from a new university who’s only ever worked part-time in Sainsbury’s”. Almost half the graduates employed by banks and building societies were taking low-paid work rather than going into jobs with prospects, researchers from the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) found.
In one large organisation, one in seven of the agency staff taken on as machine operators and clerical workers at a rate of pounds 4.50 per hour were graduates, and 40 per cent of them had been doing this work for six months or more.The institute, which questioned banks, building societies and steel manufacturers, found that distinct tiers of graduate employment were emerging. Graduates are being forced to take low-level clerical jobs or even to work as unskilled machine operators, according to a new report published today.

He condemned the broadcasting authorities allowing advertising of spirits on television. It would be “surprising” if the Government was not being influenced by the wealthy drink lobby, he added.Earlier this year, the Independent revealed how the Portman Group, which represents eight of the largest drinks producers, was offering to pay researchers to challenge the findings of a new book on the dangers of alcohol misuse.8 Alcohol and the Heart in Perspective: Sensible Limits Reaffirmed, report of a joint working group of the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal College of General Practitioners.. About 60 per cent of suicide attempts are linked with excessive drinking; 40 per cent of domestic violence incidents, 15 per cent of deaths in traffic accidents, 26 per cent of deaths by drowning and 39 per cent of deaths in fires.Professor Sir Leslie Turnberg, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said the colleges were “absolutely opposed” to raising the limits. “Relaxing the limits and stressing the positive effects of alcohol would be likely to increase alcohol consumption in the total population, and this in turn would increase the proportion of people drinking in higher risk categories.”Dr Fiona Caldicott, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists said the costs to society of alcohol misuse were high and likely to increase if safe drinking limits were raised.