TWO more East Lancashire Tory candidates will defy John Major and oppose the single currency in their election addresses.

Burnley's Bill Wiggin and Pendle's John Midgley will spell out opposition to monetary union in a personal message to voters.

They are following East Lancashire's only defending Tory MP Nigel Evans in ignoring the Prime Minister's appeal to stick to the Cabinet's "wait and see" policy on the issue.

Hyndburn Tory candidate Peter Britcliffe is set to make a similar move.

Mr Midgley has already issued a preliminary leaflet in which says he will "oppose a single currency and further threats to our national sovereignty."

And he told the Evening Telegraph he would harden the message in his election address.

Denying he was out of step with Mr Major and the Cabinet, he claimed the Tories believed it was impossible to produce a single currency by the 1999 deadline without fudging it. He was strongly opposed to the single currency and believed most Tories felt the same.

Mr Wiggin, son of former Tory minister Sir Jerry Wiggin, will be equally forthright in his condemnation of monetary union and, unlike Mr Evans, will vote against a single currency regardless of any referendum result.

He said: "As a currency trader I could not possible support the single currency. I know the damage it would do.

I would vote against it regardless of a referendum result."

The official Tory policy is that Britain will stay in the talks and if the government believes it would be beneficial to join up, a referendum of the British people would be held.

A Conservative Central Office spokesman said:"Unlike Labour we do not centralise election manifestos. Our candidates have the right to state their view on this issue."

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