News In Brief

Former National Heritage Secretary Virginia Bottomley has lashed out at the Government's "damaging vacillation" over the Millennium Exhibition in Greenwich amid signs that it may cancel the £780 million project. Mrs Bottomley insisted that the exhibition was a magnificent opportunity to celebrate the achievements of Britain and accused Labour of making "mischief". The Cabinet is expected to consider shortly the results of a review of the project ordered by National Heritage Secretary Chris Smith. The beleaguered project has been in doubt since the beginning of the year when Labour got cold feet over the huge cost and the difficulty of finding business sponsorship.

Agriculture Minister Jack Cunningham is to press fast-food chains McDonald's and Burger King to lift their boycott of British beef, according to a junior agriculture minister. Lord Donoughue was pressed at question time by Labour Euro-sceptic Lord Stoddart of Swindon to "have conversations" with these two firms and other food manufacturers who had "rushed to ban British beef, which is now recognised to be the safest in the world". Lord Stoddart said they should be asked "to reverse their ban, and to include British beef in their products". Lord Donoughue replied: "Yes, we do believe that the ban was precipitate. And Dr Cunningham is in the process of being in touch with the firms you mentioned."

Douglas Hogg, who was Minister of Agriculture in the last Government, has said he does not want to be considered for a front-bench post whichever candidate was elected to lead the Conservative Party. Mr Hogg, who spent much of the final year of the last Parliament grappling with the BSE crisis, said: "It is simply that after 13 years on the front bench, I want to return to the back benches and be free from the obligations of collective responsibility.

Parliament's legal ties with the Church of England have been called into question by a Labour MP. Demanding a review of the situation, Andrew Mackinlay, MP for Thurrock, told the Commons it should not be a modern Parliament's function to deal with matters relating to one denomination. He raised the issue during questions to the new parliamentary spokesman for the Church Commissioners, Stuart Bell (Lab Middlesbrough). Mr Mackinlay asked: "Is it not time to consider that in a modern Parliament, where a minority at most are communicants of the Church of England, it really is not sensible, nor modern, nor right, that we should have question time for this function for the Church of England Commissioners?"