(LONDON) - Britain denied Monday that plans were afoot to adopt the euro currency after the European Commission president said it was considering joining but the country's eurosceptic critics jumped on the claim.

Citing private conversations with British politicians, Jose Manuel Barroso said on Sunday that London was thinking of ditching the pound as a consequence of the global financial turmoil which has seen sterling plunge in value.

However, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesman insisted: "Our position has not changed. We have no plans to change our position.

"We see benefits of euro membership but the five economic tests have to be met," he said, referring to tests on economic convergence and other matters set by Brown when he was finance minister under Tony Blair.

Any decision on whether to join the euro "will be based on whether it is in Britain's economic interest," said the spokesman.

Once a highly-charged issue, the euro debate has fallen off the domestic agenda in recent years and now rarely surfaces.

Although Blair was warm to the idea, Brown is seen as being firmly against joining and there is little sign that public opposition has waned.

Barroso said that British entry to the euro was "closer than ever before" amid the global economic slowdown, which has seen sterling slump to its lowest level against the euro since the European single currency was created in 1999.

"I'm not going to break the confidentiality of certain conversations but some British politicians have already told me: 'If we had the euro, we would have been better off'," he RTL-LCI radio in France.

"I don't mean this will happen tomorrow, I know that the majority (of Britons) are still opposed, but there is a period of consideration underway and the people who matter in Britain are currently thinking about it."

In Brussels Monday, Barroso's spokesman refused to be drawn on which British politicians the EU commission chief was referring to, reading Barroso's radio question-and-answer out word for word.

Before the euro was launched, the British government -- specifically Brown as chancellor -- set five economic tests to decide whether to recommend joining the currency.

These were economic convergence between Britain and the eurozone; the need for the eurozone to be flexible to economic change; as well as its impact on jobs, foreign investment and the financial services industry.

The tests however were widely seen as being vague and Brown's way of blocking Blair's pro-euro ambitions.

William Hague, foreign affairs spokesman for the main opposition Conservatives, said: "Keeping the pound is vital for Britain's economic future.

"We need interest rates that are right for Britain, not the rest of Europe. There are no circumstances in which the next Conservative government will propose joining the euro.

"If Labour ministers still want to get Britain into the euro they should come out and say so. We will be putting questions to the government to find out what conversations have been going on."

The United Kingdom Independence Party, which wants Britain to pull out of the EU, slammed Barroso.

"That ruling elite would love to bounce us into the euro and will grasp at any straw to do so," said UKIP leader Nigel Farage.

"If Senhor Barroso would actually like to consult the 'people who matter in Britain' then he can call for a referendum on both the euro and the Lisbon Treaty so that the people of Britain can tell him where to go."

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