The debate over whether Britain should join the euro hotted up today as a poll showed that Britons on holiday were warming to the new currency.
A poll of 830 British tourists in Spain and Portugal found that about one in four of those originally against the euro had changed their opinion in favour of adopting the single European currency, which was introduced in cash form at the start of the year.
About 52% of those questioned said they had been in favour of joining before arriving on holiday, excluding those who did not know. That figure rose to 61% once the respondents were on holiday, again excluding those undecided.
But despite signs of a shift among holidaymakers, other surveys have suggested that overall opposition to joining the euro remains high in Britain.
Such polls are watched closely by Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has made no secret of his desire to take Britain into the euro zone, though he insists that five tests of economic convergence must be met before the issue is put to the nation in a referendum.
Labour has pledged to make a decision on whether the tests have been met by the middle of next year.
