Gunnel nearly lost
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• The VI billion channel tunnel project came within a hair's breadth of disaster this week as protesters narrowly failed to get MPs backing for a timetable that could have threatened the whole project.
MPs on the Commons standing orders committee split five/five over whether normally Parliamentary rules should apply.
The chairman. Labour MP Harold Walker, Deputy Speaker, stunned the crowded committee room when he said he would not use his casting vote.
As a result, the matter will now come back before the Commons early next month when the Government will be able to use its huge majority to steam roller through the timetable it wants, ensuring that the legislation is on the statute book next spring.
Walker revealed that the committee decided before the vote was taken that it would not be appropriate for him to hold the fate of the scheme in his hands alone.
Had the vote gone against the Government, it is even possible that the Channel Tunnel Group might have pulled out.
A leading Channel opponent, Tory MP Jonathan Aitken, claimed that the scheme was now back in the melting pot.
"What has happened is that another twist has been added to the increasingly difficult obstacle course which the Government and the Channel Tunnel Group have to negotiate."