The warning came from the all party, defence select committee, whose Conservative chairman said the country's defence capability had already been pared to the bone.

"The government could be doing a lot more to reduce unnecessary energy wastage," said Tim Yeo MP, the Conservative chairman of the committee.

Edward Leigh, the Conservative chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, said yesterday: "It is disappointing that the project significantly overran its budget.

In fact, even as the Republicans expressed some optimism about the endorsement yesterday, the Conservative chairman, Michael Long, scorned it.

Tim Yeo, the committee's Conservative chairman, said by phone recently that better connections would give the British energy industry access to big markets.

"This is a big military involvement by the Americans," said David Howell, the Conservative chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the British Parliament.

It will be a fine thing if the Conservative chairman loses his seat whatever the outcome of the election.

In today's Financial Times, the Conservative chairman, Mr Kenneth Baker, warns that a leadership challenge would be an 'unnecessary and irrelevant distraction'.

The Conservative chairman has sought to depict him as the union's candidate.