A NORTH-WEST businessman says thousands of regional jobs would be threatened if Britain joined the European single currency.

Mr David Briggs, North-west chairman of Business for Sterling, says it would inevitably result in the UK having the wrong interest rate and losing control of the economy.

"We would be back to the bad old days of job-destroying inflation and unstable economic boom and bust," he said.

Mr Briggs heads Dawsons Music, Warrington, a £16 million-a-year turnover retail operation with stores in Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Merseyside.

His latest comments on this situation come at the same time as national reports that Labour is planning a significant acceleration of its campaign in favour of the Euro.

According to one account, a supportive internal party document is to be published at this autumn's Labour Party conference.

It is claimed that the euro will be one of the main battlegrounds of the next election, with Conservative leader William Hague convinced that "save the pound" will be a winning strategy and Prime Minister Tony Blair confident that voters will be more enthusiastic about the euro once ministers have explained the potential benefits.

Meanwhile, the pressure is maintained by organisations such as Business for Sterling, the national campaign group which puts the economic and business case for Britain keeping the pound.

Mr Briggs said: "Ireland chose to join the euro and inflation there has soared to more than six per cent -- three times what it is here.

"But they are powerless to raise interest rates to ease their problems.

"They are stuck with the 'one size fits all' euro rate fixed for all the countries in the eurozone by the European Central Bank.

"The same would have happened to us, or worse."

He added: "It is simply unrealistic to expect that national economies as fundamentally different as France, Germany, Spain and Italy, can synchronise all the time."

According to one national newspaper report this week, the Labour document outlines various benefits of euro membership.

They include abolition of transaction costs for holidaymakers/travellers and elimination of exchange rates risk on the almost 50 per cent of trade which British industry does with the euro area.