Labour leadership challenger Owen Smith claims he would ‘potentially’ sign Britain up to the Euro if he became Prime Minister
The devout Europhile, who is miles behind Jeremy Corbyn, also said he could add Britain to the borderless Schengen area
GAFFE-PRONE Labour leadership challenger Owen Smith has claimed he would “potentially” sign Britain up to the Euro and borderless Schengen area if he was Prime Minister.
The devout Europhile said he would fight the 2020 general election making a "really strong case for us to stay" in the EU, but if the country had already left then "hypothetically" he could apply for the UK to rejoin.
Struggling Mr Smith told the BBC on Sunday: “If we had gone into a further recession... then I think the sensible and responsible thing for a Labour government to do is to say we are better off in the European Union."
Asked whether, as a new member, the UK would be obliged to sign up to the single currency and the Schengen Area, Mr Smith said: "Potentially, but again we are getting into hypotheticals built on hypotheticals."
The PM has said she will not trigger Article 50 – which begins the formal two-year exit period - before the end of the year, but if she were to take the step next year the UK would leave in 2019, before the next scheduled election.
Although formal negotiations on the Brexit terms cannot be thrashed out until Article 50 is invoked, Mr Smith disputed that and said Mrs May must reveal her plan.
"If she were to trigger Article 50 before the British public knows what the real Brexit deal is, I think that would be dereliction of duty on her part," he told BBC's Andrew Marr Show.
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Mr Smith said he was an internationalist and a collaborator and a co-operator" adding: "I want us to be part of the European Union".
Many of Labour's former industrial heartlands voted enthusiastically for Brexit but Mr Smith insisted that they could be persuaded to back his policy.
"If we have gone into a further recession, if the NHS is on its knees as it is right now, if we have got the prospect of more Tory austerity, then I think we will be telling a very different story to the British people."
He added: "I think people in those Northern cities don't want more reductions in their livelihoods, they want to see investment in their communities and Labour at that point - at some point in the future - would make a really strong case for us to stay within the EU."
Polling suggesting that Jeremy Corbyn is on course to thrash Mr Smith when the leadership election results are announced in two weeks time.
Despite this, Mr Smith put his chances of winning at “ten” out of ten.