Business chiefs urge Blair to back euro

Business chiefs joined forces with leading Labour figures yesterday to call on Tony Blair to press the case for membership of the single European currency.

They insisted a nationwide vote on joining the euro could be won as long as the Government, fresh from its landslide election victory, led from the front. Within hours of his re-election, Mr Blair repeated a pledge to hold a euro referendum if five economic tests were met.

Adair Turner, former director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, told BBC1's On the Record: "I think the support of the leading members of the Government is absolutely crucial to winning a referendum. Even though it has a large economic aspect, it's basically part of the business of politics."

The former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, now a European commissioner, said the debate over the single currency had reached a turning-point.

The former trade minister Lord Simon of Highbury added: "We should commit ourselves now to forming the policy on joining the euro when we have this unique opportunity of political endorsement and economic conditions running rather well for us."