Redwood's bandwagon ready to roll challenge

John Redwood, the Secretary of State for Wales was last night on the brink of shattering the Cabinet's unity behind John Major and announcing that he is ready to stand against the Prime Minister for the party leadership.

As Mr Major's allies last night urgently raised the profile of his leadership campaign, in an increasingly forlorn effort to prevent Mr Redwood from breaking ranks, the momentum behind the Secretary of State for Wales grew, with signs that Norman Lamont, the former chancellor, was prepared to withdraw his own candidacy in favour of Mr Redwood.

As the phoney war continued, a silent Mr Redwood kept the Prime Minister's allies guessing, indications from Mr Redwood's circle last night reinforced the predictions of prominent dissident MPs that he was ready to inflict maximum damage on the Prime Minister's campaign with a public announcement today.

While a succession of right-wing Tory MPs insisted in private yesterday that Mr Redwood had already passed the "point of no return" by refusing to make a wholehearted declaration of support for Mr Major's campaign, ministerial campaigners for the Prime Minister went out of their way to argue that Mr Redwood could still save his job by doing so this morning.

At the same time, it was said on behalf of the Major team that a weekend canvass of the "overwhelming majority" of ministers and backbench Tory MPs had shown that the Prime Minister had already established a decisive first ballot lead and that any challenger risked securing a "derisory' vote in a contest.

Ian Lang, the Secretary of State for Scotland and a Major campaign manager, said there had been "a huge upsurge" of support from MPs and from party constituency chairmen.

Both arguments were treated with scepticism on the Euro-sceptic right wing of the party. And claims on the right that the total of votes against Mr Major and abstentions could reach triple figures were underlined by a further breaking of ranks, this time on the executive of the 1922 backbench committee. David Evans, a Thatcherite member,declared of Mr Major: "I think he's going to lose," and added that he would not be endorsing the Prime Minister's candidacy.

Mr Major said on BBC TV yesterday that he would "be surprised" if Mr Redwood stood against him but acknowledged that he had not spoken personally to the Welsh Secretary since inviting his critics to "put up or shut up" on Thursday. The Prime Minister said on BBC 1's On The Record: "John and I spoke in the middle of last week, we spoke about future policy ... we spoke about how we might move from where we are now. I see no reason to speak to my Cabinet colleagues on the basis of newspaper speculation."

In his first television interview since activating the contest, Mr Major did little to appease his critics, refusing to rule out a single currency - while indicating scepticism about its likelihood - or to offer help for homeowners with negative equity.

The exact details of Mr Redwood's planned announcement were still unclear last night and one option could be for him to resign his Cabinet post while delaying his candidacy.

Ministers expect Mr Major to use his enforced absence at a two-day EU summit in Cannes as a platform to reinforce his line on EU policy.

Mr Clarke, the Chancellor, will today lead a push by Cabinet heavyweights to reinforce Mr Major in an interview on the BBC's Today programme, and Michael Heseltine, still seen as potentially Mr Major's most likely successor, was said by the Major campaign to be standing by to make media appearances on Mr Major's behalf.

The extent to which Mr Redwood's candidacy would raise the stakes for the party was underlined yesterday when Lord Whitelaw, the most senior Tory grandee, said that for Cabinet members to stand for the leadership against Mr Major would mean "the absolute certainty of the loss of the next general election". Some right-wingers predict Mr Redwood's candidacy could blow the first ballot wide open and that it could draw Michael Heseltine, the President of the Board of Trade, to break Cabinet ranks and enter the contest at the earlier stage. While this prospect was dismissed in loyalist ranks, one right-winger said: "We are no longer talking about a stalking horse."

As ministers went out of their way to give the Secretary of State for Wales the opportunity to climb back on board, Mr Redwood played it cool by spending the day playing cricket. Norman Lamont, increasingly cast in the role of fall-back challenger, although said to be ready to run if Mr Redwood withdrew, maintained his own media silence.

Edward Leigh, the Thatcherite former minister who last week promoted Mr Lamont as a contender, backed Mr Redwood yesterday on BBC TV's Breakfast with Frost: "We must open up this election now and have someone standing from within the Cabinet. I think we'll probably immediately or eventually force all the other members of the Cabinet who want to be Prime Minister to stand."

TORY LEADERSHIP CONTEST: inside pages

John Redwood: what he stands for and what his rivals say about him Page 2

Why the Eurosceptics are on the up and up Page 13 Leading article: what John Major must do now Page 14 Is it really Eurocrap? How close is the rest of Europe to a single currency Page 9