Heathcoat-Amory: Tories' choice

The Tory MP David Heathcoat-Amory will represent the Conservative Party at the new Convention on the Future of Europe, it was announced on Wednesday.

Tory MPs were balloted on the party's choice of representative for the Convention, the body which will draw up a blueprint for the next phase of the EU's development.

The Tories spurned a cross-party deal which would have seen the UK's two parliamentary representatives being chosen by the Commons foreign affairs select committee.

The hastily-convened vote was seen as a calculated move to stop Tory MP John Maples being appointed to the powerful body.

Maples, a moderate Tory seen as a "constructive critic" of the EU, was selected as the Conservative representative by the foreign affairs committee.

Sir Patrick Cormack, the pro-European MP for Staffordshire South, also put his name forward for the nomination.

Under the terms of the agreement reached at the Laeken summit, Britain will send three representatives to the constitutional convention - which will be chaired by former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing.

The Labour MP Gisela Stewart, a former minister who is a member of the foreign affairs committee, has been proposed as the UK's second parliamentary representative.

The former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Mandelson has been tipped to become the government's voice in the convention - although the Blairite MP David Miliband is also thought to be in the running.