Legal challenge may stall Maastricht: Rees-Mogg seeks judicial review on ratification

BRITAIN'S EC partners have been told that Maastricht ratification could be stalled until the autumn because of a High Court challenge to the statutory authority on which John Major would sign up to the treaty.

The Prime Minister was placed in double jeopardy - of a court veto on top of the threat of Commons defeat on Thursday's Social Chapter opt-out vote - when Lord Rees-Mogg, a crossbench opponent, lodged a High Court application for judicial review of the Government's intention to ratify the treaty.

Backed by 'hundreds of thousands' of pounds of financial support, sought and obtained from the multi-millionaire businessman Sir James Goldsmith, the journalist peer said the statutory basis for ratification was 'fatally flawed'.

Sir James was unable to put a price limit on the action last night, but said the treaty was 'ill-conceived and of grave importance, and has lacked a proper democratic process'. He said he had no doubt that others, too, would make contributions.

Leolin Price QC, acting for Lord Rees- Mogg, said he would not be surprised if the High Court took only a few days to consider the application for leave to apply for judicial review - before moving on to a substantive hearing of the arguments.

Because of the constitutional and legal importance of the issues involved, he believed the courts would ensure that 'any appeal is heard if necessary in August, and that any further appeal to the House of Lords is heard, if necessary in

September'.

That judicial breathing space could yet provide Mr Major with much-needed relief if, as expected, MPs reject a government motion on his Social Chapter opt- out next Thursday.

Sir Peter Hordern, a senior member of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee executive, suggested yesterday that if the Government did lose its Social Chapter motion, ministers might force MPs to vote and vote again until they passed it.

Insisting that the treaty would be ratified, he told BBC radio's Today programme: 'It's perfectly possible to have a separate debate upon the Social Chapter and that may take place not just on Thursday - it may take place in August as well.' However, he then echoed some of the confusion prevalent in Whitehall this week when he added: 'The treaty will be ratified regardless of what happens on Thursday.'

That view of Mr Major's powers was not shared by Mr Price. Section 7 of the European Communities (Amendment) Bill says that the Act cannot 'come into force' until the Commons and the Lords have both passed the trigger motions on the Social Chapter opt-out, and Mr Price said that if that did not happen 'he cannot ratify, I agree'.

Douglas Hurd, the Foreign Secretary, conceded the air of crisis last night, when he said in Oxfordshire: 'We need some hot summer sun and some strong summer persuasion to drive away the mist which still hangs over our political scene.'

However, an increasing number of Conservative MPs now believe that if the crisis persists into next month, Mr Major might have to be sacrificed. Baroness Seear, the Liberal Democrat peer, said in Christchurch: 'Let us remember that the Conservatives have one great virtue, not many, but this is one: when they realise they have a leader who's a liability, they knife them.'

The question of resignation was repeatedly put to Mr Major during a visit to Grimsby yesterday. Initially, he said: 'We're going to win the debate on the Social Chapter, so it doesn't arise'. He then added: 'We're not going to lose the vote.'