Poll shows that yacht plan is a vote loser

A majority of voters are against the decision to allocate pounds 60m of taxpayers' money to a replacement for the royal yacht Britannia, the Government is warned today in a second shot across the bows over the scheme.

Sir Edward Heath, the former Conservative prime minister, yesterday put Michael Portillo, the Secretary of State for Defence, under pressure by criticising the Government's handling of the announcement as "not honourable".

The Government had been hoping that the go-ahead for the replacement for Britannia would win votes in the election, and wrong-foot Labour over the monarchy. But the latest opinion poll shows that it could backfire on ministers.

About 72 per cent are against the use of public funds for the vessel, and only 24 per cent are for it, with three per cent "don't knows", according to the ICM-Guardian poll which is published today.

Senior Tory backbench MPs privately joined Sir Edward in criticising the Government for "dragging the Queen" into the general election campaign, although there was no suggestion of backtracking over the decision.

Sir Edward accused ministers of acting in a manner which was "not honourable" for failing to reach a consensus with the Labour Party before announcing that the Britannia II would be funded from the Treasury contingency reserve, with no private company donations.

He said the attempt to wrong-foot Labour in the pre-election campaign by announcing the Government's decision had produced a "mess", and it should have been left until after the election. "The Conservative Party above all must be an honourable party and I do not believe the actions which have been taken are honourable ones," he said on BBC radio. "As it is, it has exposed us in the election campaign of being up to trickery in what we are doing about the royal yacht," he said.

"We are open to the accusation that we are constantly emphasising that not a penny more than the budget must be spent and accusing the Labour Party and our opponents of being reckless with their money."

Sir Edward said he thought it would be a mistake for the Conservatives to include a pledge to fund Britannia's replacement out of public money in the election manifesto.

Lord St John of Fawsley, the former Leader of the Commons, said it was "absolutely right" that cost of a replacement for Britannia should be met from public funds, rather than sectional business interests.

Downing Street sources last night defended the decision and said Mr Portillo was "absolutely right" in his announcement.

A spokesman said: "We will not reconsider. We have come to a view and we are sticking to it. The Government didn't precipitate a political row. It made a government decision and how others respond to it is for them."

But the impression remained with Tory MPs that the handling of the announcement had backfired on the Government, in its eagerness to put Labour on the defensive.

Labour's deputy leader John Prescott reaffirmed that there would be no public money for Britannia - in the first two years of any Labour government.