Britain's beleaguered trade secretary, Nicholas Ridley, came home Friday night from a trade visit to Hungary and expectations were he will resign after his charge that West Germany wanted to take over a united Europe. His comments in a magazine interview, which he later retracted, provoked cross-party calls for his resignation and were denounced in Germany, France and other European countries. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher refused Friday to answer questions about Ridley's political future, reportedly leaving the first move up to him. But even rank-and-file members of her Conservative Party, who applaud his warning of German supremacy over a united Europe, said he will have to go. Sir Marcus Fox, vice chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory lawmakers, told BBC Radio 4 that Ridley's position was now ``very bad.'' Mrs. Thatcher told the House of Commons on Thursday that Ridley was not reflecting government policy, nor her own views, but she rejected demands for his dismissal. Ridley, 61, the outspoken and controversial son of Viscount Ridley, is considered Mrs. Thatcher's closest ideological ally in the Cabinet. Political commentators said his departure would be a blow to her. In the interview with the conservative weekly, the Spectator, Ridley said the West German government's support for European monetary union ``is all a German racket designed to take over the whole of Europe. It has to be thwarted. ``This rushed take-over by the Germans on the worst possible basis, with the French behaving like poodles to the Germans, is absolutely intolerable.'' Ridley said he opposed yielding sovereignty to the 12-nation European Community, which he said was run by ``17 unelected reject politicians.'' He said: ``You might just as well give it to Adolf Hitler, frankly.'' Earlier Friday night, Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd made the government's first move to repair the damage to Anglo-European relations. Speaking at the Anglo-American conference center near Oxford, Hurd said: ``Our alliance, our partnership and our friendship with France and Germany lie at the heart of modern British foreign policy. ``Lingering memories from the past do not prevent us from strengthening, month by month, the practical proofs of that friendship. ``Irreversible also is the steadily increasing cooperation with the fellow members and institutions of the European Community of which the prime minister spoke after the Dublin (EEC) summit (last month). ``Nothing will now put these processes in doubt.'' Paddy Ashdown, leader of the centrist Liberal Democratic Party, said: ``The issue has now become not Mr. Ridley's folly but Mrs. Thatcher's judgment. By refusing to sack him, she is multiplying the insult of his outrageous views.'' Gordon Brown, the opposition Labor Party's trade spokesman, said she was guilty of a ``dismal failure of leadership'' for leaving the decision about Ridley's future in his hands. ``With this indecision following on top of the Ridley insults, her inaction today signifies an astonishing abdication of responsibility that will make Britain the subject of, at best, ridicule, and at worst, hostility throughout Europe,'' he said.
