But last week a government source said Lord Neill’s proposal was “pretty fair”. “We do want a level playing field,” the source said.The change of heart will please the Conservatives but will infuriate euro-enthusiasts. Ministers said it was ridiculous to expect the Government not to throw its full weight behind its own policies, as it had done when it sent a White Paper on the Welsh Assembly to every family in Wales. They will also share public funding of pounds 1.2m and will almost certainly be given a free mailing each.The proposal to clip the Government’s wings in referendums was rejected when it was published last year by Lord Neill of Bladen’s Committee on Standards in Public Life. THE GOVERNMENT has abandoned plans to use taxpayers’ money to push for a “yes” vote in a euro referendum following pressure from the standards watchdog. The decision will infuriate pro-European campaigners who had hoped ministers would throw the weight of the Government’s publicity machine behind the campaign for entry into the single currency.
Curbs on election spending to be announced later this month will not extend to referendums, allowing pro and anti-euro campaigners to spend as much as they like.

However, such an investigation is unlikely because Lord Neill is reluctant to look into specific cases.. But, he added: “We would have taken similar action on behalf of any British businessman who thought his interests might be affected in this way.”Mr Ashcroft said his concern had been for his shareholders and that he reacted as any company chairman would in the circumstances.Tony Blair suggested in the Commons that Lord Neill’s Committee on Standards in Public Life should investigate Mr Ashcroft. The document was withdrawn.Tony Lloyd, the Foreign Office minister, confirmed that his department intervened with a letter to the then Belize prime minister, Manuel Esquivel, “following representations by Mr Ashcroft in 1994 about the implications of these proposals”. Mr Ashcroft, meanwhile, threatened to sue because the report claimed Belize’s banks, one of which belonged to him, were being used to launder drug money. The Foreign Office revealed last night that British aid paid for a report by Rodney Gallagher, a former Foreign Office official, on offshore banking and tax in the Central American state where Mr Ashcroft had major interests.
But, when Mr Gallagher called for an end to a 30-year tax exemption, the Foreign Office intervened.

JOHN MAJOR’S government hired a consultant to reform Belize’s banking laws, but then rejected one of his key findings because it would cost the Tory tycoon Michael Ashcroft millions in tax. “His message is the same for both the Unionists and the nationalists, that we have come too far in this process, there is too much at stake, to allow the issues that divide them to bring this process down.”. We are seeing the Orange card being played in a slightly updated way, and, if I can say so, quite expertly by Mr Trimble. All of that just plays to the anti-Agreement faction, to the refuseniks, to the bigots and to those who don’t want a Catholic about the place. That’s what all of this is about.”President Bill Clinton is ready to intervene if necessary, a White House spokesman said last night. Gerry Adams, the party president, said: “Unionists are now trying to accomplish in this last few days what they failed to accomplish during the negotiations on Good Friday over a year ago.”It’s very important that we spell out clearly that these amendments undermine the Good Friday Agreement, that the legislation was not required, that it’s a sop to Unionism.

Sources who attended each meeting said that at no stage had he attempted to sell the decommissioning deal proposed by Mr Blair. The Prime Minister went on television in Northern Ireland last night to deliver another plea for Unionists to give the new arrangements a chance.Sinn Fein took a dim view of the last-minute concessions to Mr Trimble. The Prime Minister would then name Sinn Fein as the party in default under the legislation.The changes closely followed appeals by the former prime minister John Major in the Commons debate on Tuesday, when Mr Blair was seen to be scribbling notes as Mo Mowlam, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, spoke to the House.Mr Trimble yesterday attended three important party meetings – first with his Assembly members, then his MPs and finally the executive. The amendments were designed to strengthen the “failsafe” mechanisms which would come into play in the event of republican non-compliance.The amendments, put forward after a bruising day in the Commons where the Ulster Unionists and Conservatives launched concerted attacks on the proposed legislation, provided for a timetable to be laid down by the International Commission on Decommissioning.The three amendments made clear that decommissioning was to happen in accordance with a specific timetable to be laid down and published by General John de Chastelain’s monitoring panel.Downing Street said General de Chastelain would name the IRA if it was in default, not Sinn Fein.