Analysis: Marr on euro 'plan'

BBC Political Editor Andrew Marr gives his assessment of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's game plans:

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I think the nature of the accommodation may very well involve an acceptance that Britain's destiny will be in the euro - but we are not there yet.

And the question is how long before we would be ready to converge, because all the signs from the Treasury for a long time, and again this week, is that there is a strong feeling that there are deep and real economic problems about trying to jump into the euro now.

Truce called?

Tony Blair is determined to hold the door open. He would like to hold the door open visibly during the rest of this Parliament.

Apart from anything else because of the extreme anger and anguish of all those pro-European business men and politicians who would drop a fair amount of water on his head if he didn't.

I think the crucial thing is that he has accepted the primacy of those tests.

He has accepted that at the moment the time is not right and all it's about now is selling that to the cabinet in as pro-European way as possible.

I do think that Tony Blair wants two things out of this politically. He wants to be seen alongside Gordon Brown.

These two men know that if they fall out terminally then the whole New Labour project is disembowelled. It's over.

The competitive briefing between the two camps has been bad in the past. I think they realise that if it carries on this way they will go the same way the Conservatives went over Europe in the 1990s.

Secondly, Tony Blair knows that he has a pro-euro majority in the cabinet, so longer term, the more he stresses the importance of cabinet responsibility, the more he feels he has got the votes on his side when he does decide its time to go.