- The Observer,
- Sunday May 11 2003
In the clearest signal yet that he wants to pave the way for Britain to join the single currency, Whitehall sources said that he will allow Cabinet members a 'freer reign' to push the arguments on the issue. When the results of the tests are announced in the next three weeks, Blair wants to make it clear that Britain has taken an 'enormous step' towards joining, and will argue that the British economy is now closer to that of other European countries, essential to the euro working.
Senior figures close to the Prime Minister said that the analysis of the key hurdles to joining the euro was 'open to interpretation' and that the chances of the country joining the single currency in the next three years had increased considerably.
'It will be a yes, with conditions to joining, not a no, we're never doing it,' said one source.
The opportunity of having a referendum before the end of the Parliament will be left 'very much open', the source said, disappointing some government officials who had briefed that it was likely that one of the biggest decisions facing the country would be put off for a decade.
In the highly significant move, Blair will launch a vigorous campaign on the virtues of the euro once the tests have been announced, a clear sign that he expects a referendum either towards the end of this Parliament or in the first year of the next.
That would give a likely referendum date on joining the euro of 2005 or 2006.
'We have had a period of rapid convergence between our economy and those of our neighbours in Europe,' said another source in the Prime Minister's inner circle. 'The question is now about sustaining that convergence and how we test that, that is what we are looking at.'
It is now clear that Blair and the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, are close to agreeing a form of words which will give a firm push towards setting a date for entry. Although joining will be ruled out 'for the time being', it will be made clear that convergence, the key test of whether Britain could sustain the euro, is progressing rapidly.
Treasury officials made it clear over the weekend that Brown was 'not a never man' and that the portrayal of him as instinctively opposed to the single currency were 'well wide of the mark'. Although the five tests had not been met, progress was being made, Whitehall officials said.
The increasingly bitter row between the pro- and anti-euro camps is set to continue as each side attempts to lever the last bit of influence it can.
Writing in today's Observer, Bill Morris, leader of the Transport and General Workers Union and a close ally of the Chancellor, said that joining the single currency would ruin the NHS.
