BLACKPOOL, England, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- Conservative leadership hopeful Kenneth Clarke said Monday the party would not sign Britain up to the euro under his leadership.
Speaking to a packed fringe meeting at the party's annual conference in Blackpool, the former chancellor rejected suggestions his pro-European views made him an unacceptable choice for leader.
He dismissed fears he would force the country into the eurozone, saying the single currency was no longer the main issue over Britain's membership of the European Union.
Instead, the most pressing challege was economic reform of the union, he continued. He was sure most Conservatives would join him in wanting to "make the single market work," he said.
"I know my colleagues in parliament, let alone the voluntary party, well enough to know that any secret plot I have to turn the whole lot back into europhiles is rather a tall order," he said.
"If you think I have gone through all this process to try and become prime minister in four years time to see the whole blasted thing exploded when I destroy my political base by trying to take us into the single currency I can only assure you that is a paranoid fear."
However the party had to come up with some radical policies, he argued.
"The aim is to get this party back into government," he said, to considerable applause. "We are not just electing another leader of the opposition, but someone who we think should be prime minister."
Clarke was speaking on the day a YouGov poll for the Daily Telegraph pronounced him the most-popular candidate among the party grassroots.
His supporters say his broadly centrist views and status as a political heavyweight mean he is the candidate most able to tempt swing voters into the Conservative ranks.
Another hopeful, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Malcolm Rifkind, used his address to delegates to outline his vision of "one nation conservatism," a "compassionate" politics that would appeal to Britons from all walks of life.
