Downing Street was last night playing down renewed cabinet rifts over euro tactics, ahead of today's cabinet pre-election planning summit at the Prime Minister's country residence at Chequers.
The Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, started media speculation about renewed cabinet infighting by reportedly telling business leaders the government was making a tactical error in believing it could persuade the British public to join the euro on the strength of economic arguments alone.
Over a private dinner, Mr Mandelson apparently challenged the widely presumed government view that the politics of the euro issue was already settled, with eventual British membership turning solely on the five "economic tests" of the Chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown.
According to the Financial Times, Mr Mandelson said: "Pro-Europeans are making a mistake if they fail to appreciate the need for political and constitutional arguments. Just because we have resolved in our mind that there is no constitutional bar, you should not assume the public are in the same position and must make the case now. It is essential to pave the way for a referendum."
The Chancellor is believed to think it unnecessary for Labour to have a potentially damaging public debate about Europe or the euro ahead of the general election. However, pro-European MPs yesterday observed that Mr Mandelson's comments appeared wholly in line with the "patriotic" pro-European tone of speeches earlier this week by Mr Tony Blair, and by the Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook.
And the Prime Minister's official spokesman described Mr Mandelson's comments as "spectacularly un-newsworthy", adding: "You would be hard-pressed to find any comment from any Minister that has ever denied there are not political and constitutional arguments surrounding the issue of the single currency."
However while Mr Cook insisted Mr Mandelson's comments in no way undermined the government's position, the Liberal Democrat spokesman, Mr Menzies Campbell, welcomed Mr Mandelson's intervention, saying: "The case for Europe has got to be argued with skill and commitment. It is naive to think the next general election can be fought in a European vacuum."
The pre-election pulse will quicken with today's Chequer's summit, as posters appear around the country showing voters congratulating themselves on being responsible for the government delivering low inflation, more nurses for the NHS, one million new jobs and smaller classroom sizes in its first term, and as ministers lay the groundwork for the manifesto they hope will deliver Labour a historic second term sometime next year.