Beckett: Labour committed to Europe

Beckett: Business need not "fear Labour"

Beckett Pledge on EMU

During a trip to Japan, Mrs Beckett said there would be no hesitation once the choice was made.

"The decision will be decided on the basis of a hard-headed assessment of Britain's national interests. So I'm afraid I'm not going to set a date today," she said in a speech to the British Chamber of Commerce in Tokyo.

"But if Britain's interests say go in, then this British government will take Britain in," she added.

Mrs Beckett devoted much of the second day of her three-day visit to fielding questions from Japanese businessmen and the media about Labour intentions towards Europe.

She insisted Labour was committed to Europe and wanted to take part in decisions about the region's future.

More than two hundred and fifty Japanese companies have factories in Britain -- representing forty per cent of Japanese investment in Europe.

There are at present 259 Japanese companies with plants in Europe and they represent nearly 40 percent of the total Japanese manufacturing investment in the European Union.

In a speech on the royal yacht Britannia to a group of top businessmen, Mrs Beckett assured the Japanese they should not fear strikes under the new government.

"There will be no blanket repeal of the 1980s' employment and trade union laws on ballots and strikes," she said.

"Signing up to the (EU) social charter also does not mean importing wholesale the social security or labour market systems of other European countries," she added.