PRO and anti-euro campaigners clashed in Maidstone just hours after the Government unveiled its "not yet" strategy.

With remarkable timing, Kent Executive Club scheduled a meeting featuring guest speaker Maureen Tomison, chairman of Kent in Europe, and Labour Party spokesman for Folkestone and Hythe.

Forced to remain seated by a skiing accident that broke her leg and seven ribs, Mrs Tomison told 30 business leaders in Stone Court Hotel that most of Chancellor Gordon Brown's five economic tests had been passed or were close to being passed.

She said euro opponent Matthew Knight, a solicitor from Tunbridge Wells, was "talking absolute rubbish" by claiming that none had been passed.

Mrs Tomison said Mr Brown had paved the way for entry to the single currency and was confident there would be a referendum before the next general election.

Joining the euro would make the average Briton £1,700 richer, she said. "We cannot afford to pass up such a golden opportunity.

"For six years, anti-Europeans have never ceased telling us that the euro would bring us no benefits, claiming that the Treasury agreed. Now both arguments have been destroyed. It's official: the euro will make us richer."

She urged the Government to "start preparing legislation to enable a referendum to take place, as promised, but they should also state that the referendum will be held before the next general election”.

"If Gordon Brown and Tony Blair are campaigning together, then I think we could have a referendum before the next election."

Mr Knight, a council member of Business for Sterling, said he disagreed with "every line, word and comma" of Mrs Tomison's speech, saying she was "behind the times."

The vast majority of British people were opposed to the euro, he said. It was a "batty" project that would lead to economic disaster.

"What concerns me is that we have an overwhelmingly political issue which could have truly dreadful economic results for the rest of us."

He added: "If you look at the trends, our economy is converging with the economy of the United States, not the Eurozone. The economies of the Eurozone are failing."

Meanwhile, Mrs Tomison's poll of the attitude of Kent businesswomen to the euro showed 43 per cent in favour of joining compared to 38 per cent against. Among men, the respective figures were 46 per cent and 44 per cent.