Flint says euro debate a "red herring"

LONDON (Reuters) - The debate over whether Britain should join the euro is a "red herring", a minister said on Thursday, as a poll showed a large majority of Britons opposed signing up to the single European currency.

A leading member of the opposition Conservative Party, which leads the ruling Labour Party in opinion polls, said meanwhile that a Conservative government would "never" join the euro.

The debate over the euro re-ignited in Britain as Slovakia became the 16th country to adopt the euro and the single European currency marked its 10th birthday.

Asked how they would vote in a referendum, 71 percent of Britons questioned in an ICM poll said they would vote to keep the pound, while 23 percent would vote to join the euro. Six percent did not know.

The pollsters said the proportion of voters supporting euro membership was the same as they recorded in a survey in April, before the worst impact of the credit crunch hit.

The telephone poll of 1,000 adults, carried out between December 19 and 21, was commissioned by BBC Radio 4's "The World at One".

"This poll reaffirms what we've been saying ... The debate around the euro is a red herring at this time. The issue is financial stability and packages for growth," Britain's Europe Minister Caroline Flint told the same programme.

The question of Britain abandoning the pound for the euro was "a non-debate at this present time," she said.

The Labour government has long said it supports the euro in principle but that five economic tests on convergence must be met before Britain would consider joining.