Stephen Byers the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry broke with protocol by speaking about Mr Blair's shake-up

Stephen Byers, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, broke with protocol by speaking about Mr Blair's shake-up. TONY BLAIR'S long-awaited cabinet reshuffle degenerated into a Whitehall farce yesterday when one of his ministers announced it would take place next Tuesday. They know what hunting is about."But Mr Blair, with smile fixed, could barely hear Mrs Style above the din.. "I have chicken and geese, but they are taken by foxes," she shouted "They are hunters themselves. The huntsmen, currently in fighting mood, sing a defiant song: "When laws can check the autumn leaves/From falling as they die,/When fences in November are as blind as in July,/We then will strip our collars off." Their patron is the Prince of Wales, who warns in the foreword of their official history that "Countryside sports are daily threatened by the agents of ignorance and prejudice".April Style, a retired farmer and Tory voter, expressed some of this emotion yesterday as she brandished a huge rib of beef when Mr Blair passed by.

But as Mr Blair realised yesterday, Labour's plans to outlaw fox-hunting have offended many.The Green Collars are the oldest hunt in Britain, founded and based in the Swan Hotel, Tarporley, from where the Conservatives are running their campaign. It was one of only seven Tory seats in the north-west of England to be saved in 1997. But Eddisbury, which Sir Alastair Goodlad hung on to during Labour's 1997 landslide with a majority of 1,185, could fall to Ms Hanson, 37, a strong local candidate and former mayor of Northwich, who fought the seat last time.In a county where Cromwell's famous victory over the Royalists at Rowton Heath in 1645 at last secured middle England for the Parliamentarians, Labour sees the Eddisbury seat as one that would demonstrate it can win anywhere. William Hague, who has visited the constituency twice in support of the Conservative candidate, Stephen O'Brien, has been chased by one opponent dressed as a giant fox.Cheshire tempers are running high in this traditionally safe Conservative constitu-ency, to which Labour has dispatched more than 100 MPs and several cabinet ministers in an attempt to secure what would be heralded as an historic mid-term endorsement.The last time a governing party won a by-election from the Opposition was in 1982. His brief walk through the Winsford shopping centre in Cheshire became more like running the gauntlet. Abandoning his prepared speech in the face of continuous heckling, the Prime Minister shouted: "You Tory supporters here can shout us down, but tomorrow the people of this constituency will have their say." Holding up the hand of the Labour candidate, Margaret Hanson, as if she had won a boxing contest, he declared: "And they will elect Margaret Hanson, who will carry on delivering a better Britain."But the Tories have been given just as hard a time.

TONY BLAIR must know how a hunted fox feels after he was hounded by angry protesters during a campaign trip on the eve of today's Eddisbury by-election. Scuffles broke out as the fox-hunting lobby booed and jeered the Prime Minister, who intends to ban hunting. David Chidgey, a Liberal Democrat member of the committee, said the cost of the comparative German facilities was about the same as those in London, "so it is unfair to suggest that we are wasting taxpayers' money".. The construction team's original pounds 165m estimate failed to anticipate inflation and spiralling fees.Perched above the new Westminster Jubilee Line station, the building will house four shops that MPs hope to rent out It will include committee rooms and restaurants. MPs will be able to relax in a leafy courtyard, which may feature a fountain, although they deny that they are planning unnecessary extravaganza.MPs travelled to Berlin to compare plans for the Reichstag with Portcullis House.

Up to 201 MPs will be able to move into their new offices after next year's summer recess - ahead of schedule, Sir Sydney added. "Few today would suggest that the money spent on the Palace of Westminster 150 years ago was a poor investment, even though the building cost three times more than the original budget," he said.Portcullis House, which was recently dismissed by the Evening Standard newspaper as "London's latest architectural fiasco", will cost pounds 70m more than planned. At the topping-out ceremony, Sir Sydney Chapman, the chairman of the Accommodation and Works Committee, which oversees the building work, said that the figure had been revised, and the project would ultimately cost pounds 15m less than that worst-case scenario. They came under fire after it was revealed that the cost of Portcullis House, on Bridge Street, directly opposite Big Ben, had spiralled to pounds 250m. all of them refer to Michael Ashcroft and to his business interests."I have no reason at all to believe they are forgeries: they are taken from the files of the US investigation, intelligence and enforcement agencies and they make disturbing reading.". MPs DEFENDED spending millions of pounds of taxpayers' money on a new office block, insisting yesterday that it was built to last at least 200 years. He said he believed it had concluded in 1992 and the principal interest was Belize rather than him.Mr Bradley said, before raising the new allegations: "To be caught up in one drugs investigation may just be a matter of bad luck - a big man in a small place at the wrong time But there is more I have seen documents, documents also seen by The Times ... "Does he have the power, to sack Michael Ashcroft, because Michael Ashcroft is the man who owns the Conservative Party."Mr Ashcroft had said he was aware of one investigation by the DEA.