THE BRITISH Labour Party will hold a referendum on joining the single European currency it was expected, it wins the general election next year, the shadow chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown, was quoted ash saying yesterday.
Mr Brown, told the Independent on Sunday newspaper: "We have always said that a decision should be made in the national interest at the time.
"That is why we say we will keep our options open. It also means that if a decision is being considered during the course of the next parliament, then a referendum at that time is the appropriate way of securing consent."
The Labour Party leader, Mr Tony Blair, hinted at the beginning of October that a referendum was on the cards if his party won the general election expected next May. The Prime Minister, Mr Major, has also promised a referendum if his cabinet decides to adopt the single European currency.
Mr Brown said in a BBC interview that "if the cabinet recommended (joining a single currency), and the government of the day, persuaded parliament, there's a very good chance of persuading the public as well".
However, recent opinion polls suggest that the majority of Britons would be opposed to their country's participation in a single European currency, if a referendum were held now.
. The Anglo French businessman, Sir James Goldsmith, put his anti European Referendum Party on the offensive yesterday with blunt advertisements.
Sir James, a multi millionaire, took two full page advertisements in the main British Sunday newspapers, attacking both Conservative and Labour parties for being, pro Europe.
"John Major is impotent," read one. But Mr Blair did not escape lightly. "Tony Blair is dumb," another advertisement went, castigating the Labour leader for saying "nothing" about the "fundamental transfer of power from Westminster to Brussels".