Pro-euro campaign takes battle to ports

Pro-euro campaigners are to post "footsoldiers" at ports, airports and the Waterloo gateway to the Channel Tunnel to sell the virtues of the currency to UK holidaymakers.

Britain in Europe, the pro-currency group supported by the Prime Minister, senior Tories and the Liberal Democrat leadership, wants to raise awareness of the benefits of the new currency as people go abroad, perhaps to experience it for the first time.

The leaflets will make an economic case for the euro, including the claim that euro membership would cut UK shop prices by 15 per cent.

"We will be saying if Britain joined the euro we would see more price transparency in the shops and it would shove down prices in the UK. Prices are 15 per cent higher here than on the Continent," a BiE spokesman said.

The move follows Tony Blair's warm remarks about the single currency in a recent BBC interview.

Michael Heseltine, a prominent euro supporter, yesterday welcomed those remarks and called on Mr Blair to show real leadership on the euro.

At a Britain in Europe conference in Birmingham, the former Deputy Prime Minister said: "My first reaction, in common with most pro-Europeans, was 'about time too'. After all, it seems to me that the only ingredient missing in the recipe for British membership of the euro is political leadership.

"Only the Prime Minister and his government can lead a successful referendum campaign. Without that leadership, pro-European supporters will remain reluctant and hesitant."

Yesterday, the Co-operative movement announced its support for the euro at its annual conference.