A PLEA to bring forward a referendum on Britain's entry into the euro was made last night in the wake of 526 steel job losses on Teesside.
An industry lobby group says tens of thousands more jobs in manufacturing industry are at risk and the Government must act now to halt the decline.
The call came as Corus, formerly British Steel, revealed 1,200 jobs cuts - with the firm's Redcar plant bearing about half of the losses.
The announcement was made only hours before leaders from steel communities across the country met in the North-East in a bid to lobby the Government on the future of the industry.
Less than a mile from the Corus plant, the Steel Action group met local MP and Cabinet Office Minister Mo Mowlam to raise concerns about the future of the industry.
In a hastily-arranged briefing the group called on the Government to act now on the single currency, before many thousands more jobs are scrapped.
"Following the announcement of more job losses on Teesside and across the country, Steel Action is calling on the Government to consider bringing forward its planned referendum on the euro," said coordinator Chris Mallender.
"We haven't got time to wait until after the next general election, because thousands of jobs in steel and manufacturing are going because of this uncertainty - and tens of thousands more are at risk."
The redundancies, which will involve white and blue-collar staff, come only four days after a delegation from Corus met Dr Mowlam, together with fellow Teesside MPs Ashok Kumar and Dari Taylor.
After that meeting, a Corus spokesman told The Northern Echo he "had no knowledge of any forthcoming redundancy announcement".
After hearing of yesterday's redundancies Dr Mowlam said: "This is devastating news for the community, the families and particularly the workers who will lose their jobs.
"We will be speaking to the workforce and looking at measures that can be put in place, and a task force is clearly one of those options."
She refused to be drawn on an early euro referendum.
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