Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have again clashed over Britain's potential membership of the European single currency.

Repeating claims made in an ePolitix.com interview, shadow foreign secretary Francis Maude told ITV's Jonathan Dimbleby programme that Labour would attempt to rig any referendum on joining the euro and predicted that propaganda to hoodwink the public into accepting membership could begin just days after the election

Robin Cook, the foreign secretary, argued that the public could be trusted to make up their own minds on the issue, if and when Labour judged that its economic tests on joining the currency had been met.

"Francis Maude, John Redwood, Ann Widdecombe, they are going to make the decision for you and they are not going to make the decision in the national interest but party prejudice," claimed Cook.

However, Maude responded that laws passed by Labour already precluded a fair campaign. "It can't be an even-handed referendum because the rules provide the scrap-the-pound campaign can outspend the keep-the-pound campaign by many millions of pounds," he said.

For the Liberal Democrats, Menzies Campbell said that a referendum on the euro might become a referendum on membership of the EU. He also derided the Tory suggestion that you could ask a misleading question on euro membership as "ludicrous".