Tories will be part of coalition against the euro, Duncan Smith says

Iain Duncan Smith stressed yesterday that the "no" campaign in a referendum on entry to the single currency would be led by a coalition from across the political spectrum, including Labour voters, Liberal Democrats, and trade unions.

The Tory leader said Conservatives would be a prominent part of an anti-euro coalition. But he refused to slap down his strategy director, Dominic Cummings, who said last week that the Conservatives would not be leading the campaign because they were so unpopular.

"Every political party is less popular than the pound. That's the one thing that comes out of this," he told BBC1's Breakfast with Frost. "When the Prime Minister has the guts to call a referendum instead of playing games with it, we will campaign vigorously to oppose entry."

The "no" campaign would be a broad coalition of anti-euro elements, including businessmen and union activists, he said. "I will be at the head of my party, leading the party, when that moment comes," he said.

"There will, however, be a coalition. We know that. There will be large numbers of the Labour Party, members of the Liberal Party. Three-quarters of the trade unions, three-quarters of business in all the recent polling, are opposed to getting rid of the pound.

John Bercow, the shadow Treasury Chief Secretary, also confirmed that the Tories would not be at the forefront on the "no" campaign and said that the euro issue was "too important to be left exclusively to politicians". He endorsed Mr Cummings as a "brilliant man".

"We will play – and Iain, as our leader, will play in particular – a prominent role in any referendum campaign, if the Prime Minister dares to call it," Mr Bercow said on BBC1's On the Record. "But we will be team players; we will be on an equal footing with politicians of other parties. Indeed, [we] will be on an equal footing with people from other parts of public life who want to keep the pound."

The Tory leader, as he headed to Washington for talks with centre-right leaders including President George Bush, said conservatives were beginning to take back control of governments across the world.

Mr Duncan Smith will join Mr Bush at the International Democratic Union conference, which is being chaired by his predecessor, William Hague.

Speaking to the 80-member organisation, he is expected to say: "We owe a huge debt to President Bush for showing us the way politically. President Bush has shown that conservative parties don't have to stop being conservative to win elections."

The Tory leader, who announced earlier this year that his party would focus on helping society's vulnerable people, said he wished to target so-called "soccer mums", mothers with relatively young children, who tend to be floating voters.