Clarity call: Kennedy

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown must come clean about where they stand on the single currency, Charles Kennedy has said.

In a keynote speech to Cardiff businessmen on Monday evening, the Liberal Democrat leader argued that the rift between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown has led to a farcical debate over when Britain will join the single currency.

He told members of the Cardiff Business Club that the run of speeches and media leaks, where one Downing Street story on euro entry is countered by a rebuttal emphasising the chancellor's five economic tests, is undermining the two men's credibility.

Kennedy called for both men to clarify once and for all their position on the issue.

"In any one week, in normal domestic political times, we can expect either the chancellor or the prime minister to make a more or less enthusiastic statement about British membership of the euro. It will then be followed, as night follows day, by the other one contradicting what the first has said. This is no way to run a government," Kennedy said.

In speech that also covered the wider issue of taxation, Kennedy also accused Blair of failing to operate a system of cabinet government.

"The prime minister has been quick to set up task forces and policy tsars drawn from outside government. He has been far less good at operating a system of cabinet government."

Kennedy said that the chancellor's wait-and-see approach to the single currency has severely hampered the economy.

"The one cabinet colleague who does have virtually free reign is, of course, the chancellor.But his dogged resistance to moving towards UK adoption of the euro has both damaged the economy, particularly the manufacturing sector, and opened a rift at the heart of government," he said.