Tony Blair intends to push for closer integration with the rest of Europe, Ann Widdecombe claimed on Saturday.

She said that Labour would "railroad" Britain into closer ties with the European Union.

She told The Today programme: "You cannot trust this government to have respect for the democratic processes and I believe we're going to be railroaded further into the European Union, not just into the single currency, but more of our powers are going to be given up and you the people will not have a say in it."

Widdecombe claimed that parliament was becoming less important as more powers were transferred to the EU. "You are now governed by whole tranches of law which have never so much as been debated in parliament, never mind voted on," she said.

She dismissed talk of a second Labour landslide saying that Tony Blair had already shown how little importance he puts on parliament as an institution.

"There has been a continual contempt by this government for the last parliament and if this government comes back with a large majority, which I do not believe is going to happen, it will simply do what it has done in the past to an even greater extent," said Widdecombe.

New Strategy

Her warnings came as the Conservatives appeared to be shifting the emphasis of their strategy in the closing week of the campaign.

Whilst many had expected Europe to dominate the final week, William Hague will now warn of the damage that could be done by returning a Labour government with a massive majority.

On Friday, he shifted the focus to inner city regeneration and away from tax cuts, asylum and the euro.

This weekend the party unveiled a poster campaign pledging to boost morale in public services. The Tories claim that teachers and nurses are leaving their professions as a result of Labour's policies.

The posters say: "Give them a reason to stay Vote Conservative."

Francis Maude, the shadow foreign secretary, denied that the poster represented a shift in strategy. "We have not realigned our campaign. We have run consistently on the issue of public services. We have consistently attacked the failure of Labour to deliver," he said on Saturday.