Anti-euro group's Hitler advert is 50 years out of date, says Blair

Tony Blair yesterday claimed a controversial anti-euro advertisement comparing the single currency's supporters to Adolf Hitler, was based on a view of Europe that was half a century out of date.

The European Commission joined the Prime Minister in condemning the film in which the comedian Rik Mayall dressed as Hitler parodies a Nazi salute and declares: "Ein Volk! Ein Reich! Ein Euro!"

But the No campaign continued to defend its 90-second advert, to be shown in cinemas from next week.

Mr Blair told the Commons the argument over membership of the single currency should focus on its impact on industry, jobs and investment. "In the end, this won't be decided by celebrities, by pop stars, by comedians or by anyone else.

"A joke is a joke, but insofar as there is a serious point behind it, it is a shame if the anti-euro campaign wants to base itself on a view of Europe that is over half a century out of date." Mr Blair said he was sure the debate would be "conducted at a rather better and higher level" if a referendum on membership was held.

He was replying to Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat leader, who said debate about the euro deserved better than being reduced to "gross caricature and playing upon people's fears".

In Brussels, a European Commission spokesman, Jean-Christophe Filori, said: "The use of Adolf Hitler in this campaign is in appalling bad taste and beneath contempt. To suggest this is simply just a laugh is insulting and panders to basic xenophobic instincts."

Lord Lamont of Lerwick, a former Conservative Chancellor and a vociferous anti-euro campaigner, was critical of the advert, adding that he was "rather amused such a terrible mistake has been made".

George Eustice, director of the No campaign, said: "The film is anything but based on an old-fashioned view of Europe. It is contemporary and forward-thinking and has a positive message. It will go down well in cinemas, where five million people will see it."

And Sir Stanley Kalms, a prominent figure in the No campaign and Conservative Party treasurer, said it had been intended as satire. "Europe with the euro would be a single-party state ... I think there is a great danger we will be absorbed economically, politically into a single-party system within Europe."

The former European Commission vice president and Tory cabinet minister, Lord Brittan of Spennithorne, said: "It is nonsense to suggest the euro would bring a single-party state and I am astonished the treasurer of the Conservative Party should make such an unfounded statement. There is absolutely no basis for this"

The Tory MP, Ian Taylor, told the British-German Association conference in London the No campaigners were mimicking the tactics of the French National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. "The Conservative Party should rapidly distance itself from this nasty and brutish publicity before it becomes tarnished by it."