However, if Germany is the only objector, the measure could be voted through. A vote would then be taken next week on easing the ban.Member states remain extremely worried about Britain's failure to provide reassurance that eradication is being properly carried out. The commission, which wants to ease the ban, will today attempt to gauge which states are ready to agree with it. The European Commission believes it will be months before member states will agree to lift the ban on British beef, sources in Brussels said yesterday, writes Sarah Helm.

If I want to have sex, it is not the hardest thing for a man in my position."The trial continues today.. Roy Hattersley, the former Shadow Home Secretary, will lead Labour MPs in support of a move to lift the ban on gays in the armed forces in vote tomorrow which could split Labour's ranks, writes Colin Brown. John Reid, the Shadow defence minister, and three Labour members of a cross-party Commons select committee yesterday gave unanimous backing to the Ministry of Defence in refusing to lift the blanket ban on gays in the services. But many Labour MPs are planning to vote in favour of the ban being lifted in a free vote on an amendment to the Armed Forces Bill tabled by two Tory MPs, Edwina Currie and Michael Brown.The Tories are being ordered to vote down the Currie-Brown amendment on a three-line whip, but a number of other Tory MPs, including David Ashby, were considering voting for it and others were contemplating abstaining.Stonewall, a gay rights campaign group, has written to MPs urging them to vote for the amendment calling for the ban to be lifted, which was implacably opposed by Nicholas Soames, Minister for the Armed Forces, following a report by an MoD inquiry.In spite of the widespread unease among Labour MPs about banning gays in the armed forces, the move to lift the ban is expected to be heavily defeated.. He claimed a long-standing sexual relationship with the first woman "I have never raped anyone If I had, I would be deeply ashamed There is absolutely no need for that in life. He told defence counsel Anthony Scrivener, QC, that he had been cleared of wrongdoing. In 1989, he won substantial damages, costs and an apology from the Sunday Times.Mr Oyston denies two charges of rape and a further charge of indecently assaulting one of the women.

The first woman claimed she was forced into sex, aged 18, after being driven to his secluded mansion late at night. The second said she was forced to have oral sex in the back of a car, and then watched Mr Oyston have sex with another woman before joining them and being raped.Mr Oyston, who divorced his wife Vicky in 1982 and remarried her six years later, said that in between, when he was chief executive of the Miss World group, he had "a lot of girlfriends". "I am sufficiently cynical in life after these vicious attacks over the years by newspapers and individuals to think there is a connection," he told the officer.On the eighth day of the rape trial, Mr Oyston said that at one time he was being investigated by the Fraud Squad, the Inland Revenue, the Drugs Squad, the City's regulatory takeover body Imro, international private investigators, the Sunday Times and other newspapers. It was, Mr Oyston said, only three weeks before his civil case against the politicians was due before the High Court.He alleged that a "very nasty" campaign had been waged against him for 10 to 12 years.

Mr Oyston said he had failed to have a civil action against them heard because of a lawyer's mistake. He was now acting through the European Court of Human Rights.Earlier, a detective told the court - where Mr Oyston denies raping two teenage models - that at the start of an interview in February last year the tycoon claimed his arrest at Claughton Hall, his home near Lancaster, was linked to the conspiracy. Mr Oyston, chairman of Blackpool Football Club, alleged that Lord Blaker - formerly the Blackpool South MP Peter Blaker - and the ex-sports minister Robert Atkins, MP for South Ribble, had mounted the conspiracy against him and the North West Labour Party. Mr Oyston, 62, a life-long Labour supporter, told Liverpool Crown Court that he had 48 hours of tape-recordings of conversations between Lord Blaker, Mr Atkins, Blackpool businessman William Harrison, a man named Michael Murrin ,and "a whole range of other senior people in the Conservative Party". Figures are top of their declared bands and are earnings in addition to their MP's salaries. Owen Oyston, the multi-millionaire businessman who is accused of rape, told a court yesterday that he was the victim of a long-running conspiracy by two government ministers.

Earlier this year, the Labour Leader's Office Fund was set up. This is a "blind trust", where Mr Blair and his office do not know the identity of contributors so they cannot be influenced by them.John Prescott, meanwhile, has set up his own trust, the John Prescott Campaign/Research Trust to finance his office as deputy leader. The top 10 MPs in the Commons' league of outside declared earnings Roy Hattersley: pounds 110,000Labour MP for Birmingham Sparkbrook, former deputy Labour leader, paid by the Guardian and Mail on Sunday Patrick Nicholls: pounds 77,000Tory MP for Teignbridge, former junior minister, paid by Hill & Smith Holdings, The National Specialist Contractors Council, Channel Express, Wells, British Bus, The Clinical Dental Technicians Association Sir Dudley Smith: pounds 55,000Former junior minister in Heath government, Tory MP for Warwick and Leamington, paid by Whitehall Laboratories, Celltech, The Cosmetic Toiletry and Perfumery Association, Faulding Pharmaceuticals, Pielle Corporate Com- munications, Gillette Management Andrew Hunter: pounds 52,000Chairman Northern Ireland Tory backbench committee, MP for Basingstoke, consultant to Lily Industries, Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick, The Timeshare Council, member of The Political Opinion Panel of BPRI, member of Harris Parliamentary Panel John Greenway: pounds 50,000Tory MP for Ryedale, adviser to the Institute of Insurance Brokers, Yorkshire Tyne Tees TV, General Healthcare, also works for European Incentive and Business Travel and Meetings Exhitbition, the Institute of Sales Promotion, British Promotional Merchandising Association Keith Hampson: pounds 46,000Member of trade and industry select committee, Tory MP for Leeds North West, consultant to NCM (Credit Inurance), Capitb Plc, Association of University Teachers, Alexander and Alexander, PowerGen, member of Political Opinion Panel of BPRI Ian Bruce: pounds 45,000Tory MP for South Dorset, adviser to Telecommunications Managers Association, Trevor Gilbert & Associates, Federation of Recruitment and Employment Services Quentin Davies: pounds 42,000Member of Treasury select committee, Tory MP for Stamford and Spalding, adviser to NatWest Securities, consultant to Chartered Institute of Taxation, member of Political Opinion Panel of BPRI, member of Harris Parliamentary Panel Sir Anthony Grant: pounds 41,000Member of 1922 Tory backbench committee executive, member of trade and industry select committee, MP for South Cambridgeshire, chairman of Guildfare Ltd, director of Bowring, Marsh & McLennan, adviser to Bowring UK, Barclays Bank, The Guild of Business Travel Agents, member of Harris Parliamentary Panel Paul Marland: pounds 40,000Tory MP for West Gloucestershire, adviser to The British Metals Federation, Unigate Dairies, Reclamation Association, Rank Xerox *MPs declare earnings in bands. More significantly, he has rearranged the system by which his office is funded.