British Prime Minister Tony Blair returned to the hot topic of Britain and the euro last night, telling a key business audience he thinks the public can be won round by pragmatic arguments about joining the currency club.
Blair sparked a fresh flurry of euro speculation last week, using a high profile interview to say that it would be a 'betrayal' of British national interest to stay out of the currency club if the economic case for joining was clear.
The government is committed to judging the economics of euro entry by the middle of next year and to offer the public a vote if it decides it wants to press ahead. It has two key problems - opinion polls show the majority of the public want to keep the pound and economists say sterling is trading at a level against the euro that would cripple industry if it was locked in at that rate forever.
But Blair signalled last night that opinions can be changed. 'I believe that if these economic conditions are met then the British people will make a pragmatic hard-headed assessment of what is the right thing for British jobs, British industry, the standard of living of British families,' he said in a speech to the Confederation of British Industry's annual dinner.
The pound hovered close to eight-month lows versus the euro yesterday as speculation the government might be gearing up to take Britain into the single currency refused to die out.
After Blair's intervention last week, ending weeks of silence on the subject, Transport Secretary Stephen Byers fanned the flames by suggesting that legislation for a referendum could be framed this year.
But Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown appeared to rein back over the weekend with the Treasury dismissing reports that he was warming to the single currency.
