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UK Political Parties Trade Europe Blows
Britain's Labor Party leader Tony Blair Friday made his strongest attack yet over Europe, warning that the Conservatives would put the UK "a step away" from withdrawal from the European Union.
In a major speech to party activists in Scotland, he insisted " patriotic" Britons should play a full part in the union.
The prime minister again pledged that the UK would only join the euro if the public backed it in a referendum.
"Isolation and marginalism in Europe is not patriotic, but the denial of our true national interest," he told his audience at the St Bride's community center in Edinburgh.
The Conservative plan to renegotiate the terms of European treaties was "playing with fire", Blair said.
He added: "It is a step away from leaving Europe and that would be disaster for Britain, for British jobs, for British industry and influence in the world."
Meanwhile, Conservative Party leader William Hague said that a Labor victory on June 7 would mean that the process of joining the euro would begin on June 8.
"That is the decision we face in two weeks' time. We have two weeks to save the pound," he said. "Two weeks to decide whether, from June 8, our economy should be run in our own interest."
"You can vote Labor or Liberal to scrap the pound. Or you can vote Conservative to keep the pound," he noted.
Earlier the Liberal Democrats put their case for Europe - Treasury spokesman Matthew Taylor said euro-zone countries had done well from the single currency while British industry had suffered.
He warned that this stance on Europe was not patriotism but folly and would lead to the humiliation of Britain.
And he said Britain's roots in Europe were long established.
On the single currency, he said: "We will recommend joining the single currency if it is in our national economic interest and it is you the British people who will have the decision in your hands in a referendum."
At Labor's news conference, Chancellor Gordon Brown appeared to back the prime minister's positive view of the government's chances in a euro referendum, though he insisted policy had not changed.
"We have always said that if the five economic tests were met and a recommendation was made by the cabinet and parliament, we believe the people would support it, but in the end it is up to the people," he said.
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