UK Labour to base EMU entry on "hard headed economic assessment"

THE British Labour Party yesterday claimed it was not committed to joining a European single currency on a specific date around the turn of the century, but would keep the possibility constantly under review in government.

In a keynote speech, British shadow foreign secretary, Mr Robin Cook, said a Labour government would take a "hard headed economic assessment" of the effects of a decision to sign up to monetary union.

But he said in the long ran, it would become "increasingly difficult for Britain to go it alone if the single currency succeeds".

"This emphatically does not mean that Labour is committed to signing up to the single currency in 2001, 2002 or 2003," he told the Centre for European Reform.

"We are keeping our options for those years every bit as open as our options for 1999."

Mr Cook suggested on Sunday that a Blair government would sign up to European Monetary Union in 2002, when the euro will replace national currencies in the shops, if the single currency proved to be stable.

He called on his business audience to resist Tory "Europhobia" and rebutted the Prime Minister's claims about the European Social Chapter.

Mr Major told Euro sceptic businessmen in Brussels he would never sign up to the Chapter, which he said would be a "Trojan horse" and would destroy jobs.

Mr Cook challenged Mr Major's claim that the Chapter would mean the loss of 500,000 jobs in Britain and said the Prime Minister "demeans both the level of public debate and the standing of his office".

EMU has been confirmed as one of the key battlegrounds in the coming general election.