Tony Blair responded to Major's challenge: "Fine: his record against our polices, any place, any time."
But it didn't turn out like that. Secret negotiations to fix up the debate broke down amid mutual recriminations with the Labour's campaign director Peter Mandelson claiming the Tories had not been "negotiating seriously or flexibly".
For his part John Major claimed: "Tony Blair challenged me to a debate, to his dismay I accepted and to everyone's amusement he then chickened out."
Lance Price, then a BBC political reporter and subsequently a Labour spin doctor, said: "Labour didn't really want this debate to take place.
"Tony Blair was streets ahead in the opinion polls and when you're out in front why take the risk? Why put yourself through the possibility of something going horribly wrong like that."
It was this reasoning that prevented Blair from agreeing to debates in the subsequent two elections.