Mr Meacher said a public subsidy of at least pounds 330m to pounds 500m a year would

Mr Meacher said a public subsidy of at least pounds 330m to pounds 500m a year would have to be paid to private train operators to compensate them for the loss of revenue under the cap on fares.It was the “biggest market rigging operation in modern history”, he said, before challenging Mr Mawhinney to reveal his estimate of the subsidy. Would it be less than pounds 500m or more?Mr Mawhinney did not respond, but later said that it was not possible to predict the subsidy because of the competitive bidding process and the restructuring of the industry to produce efficiencies. Invitations to tender for the first three passenger franchises went out yesterday. “We want to see the relative decline of the railways halted and then reversed. There’s only one argument to address: Can that be done in the public sector alone? After 40 years of relative decline, the answer is clearly ‘No’.”Tory backbench worries about the electoral wrath of disgruntled home- owners were aired in typically trenchant terms by Nicholas Winterton, MP for Macclesfield. Initiating a short debate on the state of the housing market, he warned ministers: “Politically, we cannot afford to alienate home owners or to treat their fears or aspirations with contempt.”Blaming “Treasury-inspired blows to confidence”, Mr Winterton, chairman of the Manufacturing and Construction Industries Alliance, said estate agents reported sales were almost 20 per cent down on the period to the end of April compared to 1994. Government action could not wait until the Budget and should include raising the ceiling on Miras from pounds 30,000 to pounds 50,000 at the 25 per cent standard tax rate for first-time buyers.Tony Banks, Labour MP for Newham NW, urged a boost to house renovations and construction to put unemployed building workers back to work.

He said it was “amazing” that in the 1990s there were still 2,000 households in his constituency that had outside toilets.The Housing minister, Robert Jones, offered little of substance to Mr Winterton. But, departing from his brief, he offered an unusual personal vignette as he sympathised with Mr Banks.”Like him, I began my life with access only to an outdoor loo But, perhaps unlike him, had one other hazard. When I went to stay with my Great-aunt Linda in North Carolina, you had to bang loudly on the outdoor loo with a stick to dislodge the rattlesnakes if you didn’t want to end up with a greater vulnerability than I think you would find in Newham.”. BY JOHN RENTOUL

and BARRIE CLEMENT
Tony Blair’s “no figure” line on Labour’s minimum-wage policy has cleared an important hurdle, winning approval of the party’s powerful joint policy committee.A new policy document makes clear that a figure will not be put on the minimum wage until after the next election: “The Labour government will have responsibility for implementing the minimum wage.”In another move which is also fiercely opposed by many in the party, it makes clear that employers will be consulted before the level is set. It proposes “a review body involving government, business, unions and others” to examine economic circumstances and social justice considerations before setting the wage rate.The document was agreed on Tuesday night by the joint committee of the Shadow Cabinet and Labour’s National Executive, after a long-running battle between Gordon Brown, the shadow Chancellor, and John Edmonds, leader of the GMB general union, on the party’s economic policy commission. Mr Edmonds has led union demands for a figure.The executive of the Trades Union Congress yesterday accepted defeat as the general secretary, John Monks, said: “The commitment to the principle is clear, as is the right of unions to hold their own view.”Mr Monks said the party’s proposal for a low-pay commission was clearly no part of any deal between the unions and Labour. “If we were writing it, it would have been written differently,” he said.

However, he did not think the plan was incompatible with unions’ insistence that a minimum wage should be struck at half male median earnings.He indicated that TUC leaders would argue for the formula when the commission met. However, Bill Morris, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, the party’s largest affiliate, is opposed to the principle of allowing employers an input on the decision.A spokesman for Mr Blair said the Labour leader “remains convinced that there’s widespread public support for the principle of a minimum wage”. Labour will test its new line in an Opposition debate in the Commons next Wednesday. The document will go to the party conference in Brighton in October.. John Godfrey, the Conservative candidate in the Perth and Kinross by-election – pictured putting his case at a meeting at Kinnoull primary school in Perth – yesterday pushed his campaign into the realms of farce when he urged voters to support any party except the Scottish National Party, writes John Arlidge. Opposition candidates gleefully accused Mr Godfrey of “throwing in the towel” after he was filmed by a BBC television crew telling a disgruntled voter: “I don’t mind which way you vote as long as you don’t vote SNP.”
Mr Godfrey, set to lose the seat to the Scottish nationalists by up to 7,000 votes, denied that his comments amounted to an admission of defeat.

The by-election was a “head to head race” between Unionist parties and SNP “separatists” and defending the Union was his main concern, he said.”There are people I have met who want to register a protest vote to make their view clear to the Government That’s fine That’s democracy. What I am saying is, register your protest but do not give support for smashing up the UK.”Opposition parties ridiculed his comments. Roseanna Cunningham, the SNP candidate, accused the Tories of panicking. “I cannot understand how any politician could go on to a doorstep with that line. Mr Godfrey has exposed the anti-Scottish nature of the Tories’ campaign,” she said.For Labour, Douglas Alexander, who is in second place in opinion polls, said: “This is desperate stuff – a crude attempt to make this by-election a constitutional showdown.”Veronica Linklater, the Liberal Democrats’ candidate, said she felt sorry for Mr Godfrey “He has acknowledged he is out of it Ah, pat him on his little head,” she said. Archy Kirkwood, her campaign manager, added: “I’m not sure whether an endorsement from John Godfrey is a blessing or a curse.