The British government yesterday came closer than ever before to suggesting British membership of the newly-launched euro was inevitable. The Europe minister, Peter Hain, asserted it was not sustainable for sterling to co-exist indefinitely alongside the new European currency.
Conservatives immediately claimed the Tony Blair government was trying to drive a sceptical, but fatalistic British public into the euro by stressing its inevitability. Polls are showing big increases in the numbers who believe it will be impossible for sterling to stand alone.
Mr Hain, speaking on the day of the euro's momentous launch, said: "I doubt in the end that it is possible to run a sort of parallel currency economy."
This was the furthest a senior British minister has gone in revealing government thinking in what is widely seen as the decisive year in determining whether Tony Blair will risk a referendum.
Mr Hain has been given licence by Downing Street gradually to harden the pro-euro case without undermining the primacy of the five economic tests or the authority of Britain's chancellor, Gordon Brown, in determining whether those tests have been met. But Mr Hain later stressed that his remarks did not change government policy.
But there is a growing belief in government circles that on the back of the euro's successful launch, Mr Blair would like to hold a referendum next year, and Britain's Foreign Office is now backing the move.
In theory, Mr Brown does not have to announce the result of the Treasury assessment until June 6th, 2003, but Mr Hain said he expected earlier publication.
The Conservative party chairman, David Davis, said the government was deliberately presenting resistance as futile. "The fact that they are trying to ride the argument of inevitability demonstrates actually how weak their case is, that there aren't stronger arguments," he said.
He claimed the only test that really mattered for the government was whether Mr Blair believed he could win a referendum.