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The Associated PressLONDON — The defection of another Conservative Party lawmaker puts embattled Prime Minister John Major in an even more precarious position — he may soon have to govern with a parliamentary majority of just one vote.Lawmaker Emma Nicholson quit Britain’s governing party Friday, saying it had become too conservative and was neglecting social causes. The party’s former vice chairwoman switched to the centrist Liberal Democrats and urged other disgruntled Conservatives to follow her.“It just ain’t the Conservative Party it used to be,” declared Nicholson, saying she had agonized over the decision for years.Nicholson’s departure means that the Conservatives, who have held power since Margaret Thatcher became prime minister in 1979, are now down to a majority of three votes in the 651-member House of Commons.Two vacant seats are to be*filled by special elections, and the Conservatives have lost every one of those elections since Major was re-elected in 1992.Losing those seats would shave Major’s majority to onevote, and even that margin might not last long.One Conservative lawmaker may be forced to declare bankruptcy and give up his seat after losing a libel suit over news-that he ispaperhomosexual. The law of averages suggests that two or more lawmakers could die before the next general election must beheld in 1997.Polls show a majority of Britons now favor the increasingly centrist Labor Party, while Conservative opponents of closer alliance with continental Europe are trying to move their party to the right.
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Pacific Stars and Stripes
Tokyo, Tôkyô, JP
Mon, Jan 01, 1996
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