LONDON, 12 June 2003 — British Prime Minister Tony Blair told his ruling Labour Party yesterday to go out and make the case for Britain joining the single-currency euro as he threw himself into a campaign to convince a skeptical public. In a pro-euro double act with Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister) Gordon Brown for a third day, Britain’s two most powerful politicians reeled off the benefits of the euro to Labour members of Parliament.

“The message was pro-European, pro-single currency,” said former minister Peter Mandelson after a Labour Party meeting. “You are going to see a serious, sustained argument, in my view, by all members of the government, by the parliamentary Labour Party,” he said.

Brown concluded this week that only one of his five economic tests on euro entry had been met and he set out a string of obstacles to be overcome before the pound could be scrapped. But in a surprisingly positive message, he said he would likely revisit the tests next year, potentially triggering a euro referendum as early as 2004.

Blair believes joining the euro, now used by 12 European countries, is part of Britain’s destiny. Its adoption is seen as crucial to his standing and Britain’s influence in Europe, where London is seen as a semi-detached member of the European Union.

But opinion polls show that about two-thirds of Britons want to keep the pound sterling they have had since Anglo-Saxon days.

Blair told Labour MPs to ignore the polls and he laid bare his pro-euro strategy in Parliament yesterday, accusing opponents of wanting to pull Britain out of the European Union.

“What would be a disaster for British business is ... if we were to withdraw from the European Union,” he said. Many commentators see little change in what they call the government’s ambiguous “wait and see” policy on the euro.

But Blair for the first time has given his ministers the green light to spread the word on the benefits of the currency, coupled with a strong pro-Europe message, seen as particularly important to heal deep rifts in Europe caused by the Iraq war.

Meanwhile, unemployment in Britain jumped by almost 10,000 during May, the biggest monthly rise in more than a decade, according to official figures released yesterday that further ratchet up pressure for an interest rate cut.

The number of people seeking unemployment benefits rose by 9,700 to reach 950,800, the National Statistics office said, although the jobless rate held steady at 3.1 percent for the 17th successive month.

Particular gloom was felt in the country’s long-beleaguered manufacturing sector, which saw worker numbers fall by 137,000 in the three months to April. The remaining number of employees in manufacturing jobs, 3.53 million, is the lowest level ever recorded since the data was first recorded in 1984.

The May increase in jobless claimants, the biggest since December 1992, was far more than predicted by economists, who had expected a rise of around 2,000.