
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 5, 1995                   TAG: 9507060040
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: LONDON                                LENGTH: Short

MAJOR WINS PARTY'S FAVOR IN ENGLAND

Prime Minister John Major defeated a right-wing challenger Tuesday in a Conservative Party vote that still leaves him the likely target of party dissent and the focus of his government's unpopularity.

Major won 218 votes from the 329 Conservative legislators; former Wales Secretary John Redwood won 89 votes.

Another eight Conservative legislators in the House of Commons abstained in an attempt to deny Major outright victory and force a second ballot with new contenders.

Major easily exceeded the 50-vote margin that party rules dictate he needed to defeat Redwood.

``It was the clear, absolutely conclusive result that the party was praying for,'' said Defense Secretary Malcolm Rifkind.

Bill Cash, a prominent Major critic within the party, said the election was but a starting point for healing party rifts. ``We've got to strive to find that common ground,'' Cash said.

The party leader is automatically the prime minister, and Major would have had to resign if he lost.

- Associated Press

by CNB