Major Quits as Party Leader, Challenges Critics : Britain: He’ll resign as prime minister too if he loses election as Tory chief. But his expected rivals back him.

In a move that stunned supporters as well as opponents, Prime Minister John Major resigned Thursday as leader of Britain’s Conservative Party, challenging his right-wing and increasingly rebellious critics to run against him in an election for the party leadership.

“It is time to put up or shut up,” Major told fellow Tories who have bitterly fought his policies over British integration in the European Union and thus jeopardized his leadership of the party.

In a dramatic announcement at a hastily called news conference in the garden of his Downing Street residence, Major said he was confident of winning the July 4 election, thus remaining prime minister. If he is defeated in the party vote, Major said he would resign as prime minister.

“The Conservative Party must make its choice,” a confident-looking Major, 52, asserted. “Every leader is leader only with the support of his party. That is true of me too. That is why I am no longer prepared to tolerate the present situation.”

Potential opponents, however, quickly rallied behind Major, and there appeared to be little likelihood that he would be defeated in the leadership contest.

There was a question of whether any Conservative member of Parliament would even run against him. Without opposition, Major would be automatically reelected as party leader and would retain the premiership.

Senior Cabinet members who have been mentioned as potential rivals to Major all expressed their support for him. They included Trade and Industry Minister Michael Heseltine, Chancellor of the Exchequer Kenneth Clarke, Employment Minister Michael Portillo and Education Minister Gillian Shephard.

In a contested election, party rules require the victor to win by a majority and also by 15% more than the nearest contender.

Major’s greatest danger would come from a large number of abstentions in the balloting should a low-level Tory member of Parliament challenge him. He would probably then win but with sharply reduced authority. Anywhere between 80 to 100 Tory abstentions would be interpreted as a vote of no confidence, according to political observers, and that would make it difficult if not impossible for Major to remain as leader.

Major’s action was prompted by running criticisms of his pro-Europe stance by his party’s “Euro-sceptics,” who oppose further British integration, however cautious, into the 15-member European Union. They are seeking a national referendum on the issue.

Friends said the prime minister was particularly irked to return last weekend from the meeting in Canada of leaders of the Group of Seven major industrial countries to face newspaper stories claiming that influential party members were against him--and looking for a new chief.

The articles followed sharp criticism of his European policies by former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

As Major viewed it, the constant drumbeat of criticism in the media was, as he said, “undermining the government,” and he was “no longer prepared to see the party I care for laid out on the rack like this.”

He said in a television interview that all the “silly” comments on a leadership election, originally set for November, were overshadowing the serious business of government.

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“For the last three years, I’ve been opposed by a small minority in our party,” Major said in announcing his move to force an early vote. “I believe this is in no one’s interest that this continues right through until November.”

Despite her strong misgivings about Major’s European policy, Thatcher said in a statement: “It is a bold move, and it will clear the air. I believe the prime minister will be reelected, and by this move he will have strengthened his authority.”

One of the fiercest anti-Europe Tory members of Parliament, Teresa Gorman, said she hoped a challenger would come forward to run against Major, but declined to say whether she would herself become a nominee.

Another Major critic, Tony Marlow, told a meeting of right-wingers: “He’s a nice guy, but he’s a loser. It is vital for somebody to stand against him.” But Marlow also refused to say whether he would run.

Norman Lamont, the former chancellor of the Exchequer, who has been frequently mentioned as a right-wing rival to Major, had no comment.

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The backbench 1922 Parliamentary Committee, which supervises internal Conservative Party elections, said that nominations for the leadership would be closed at noon next Thursday, with the vote July 4.

The Conservatives’ standing is at an all-time low in public opinion polls, with voters complaining about tax increases and the party’s arrogance after 16 years in power. The Tories have lost a series of by-elections recently, and in a national election they would probably lose to the opposition Labor Party.

Blair, the Labor leader, called Major’s action a “desperation measure” and “an admission by the Conservative Party that it is no longer fit to govern. The loser is the country, the nation.”

Major, however, has considerably greater popularity than the Conservative Party, and in the May, 1992, parliamentary election he led the Conservatives in a come-from-behind victory that gave him a comfortable popular margin but not a sizable majority in the House of Commons.

Under British practice, Major need not call a new national election before the spring of 1997.