Brown slaps down Hain on euro

Charles Reiss12 April 2012

AN ANGRY Gordon Brown today moved to slap down Europe Minister Peter Hain for claiming Britain could ditch the pound and join the euro by next spring. The Chancellor launched a counterattack after Hain used a French newspaper interview to set out a possible timetable for entry into the currency and declared keeping sterling would be an 'enormous blunder'.

The interview, in which Hain also claimed that those who opposed the euro were the 'enemies of Europe', was seen as evidence of a widening split over the currency at senior levels in the Government. Treasury sources rebuked Hain for 'idle speculation' and suggested he was out of the loop when it came to decision making on the issue.

Brown and his aides rarely let a freelance ministerial pronouncement on the euro go unpunished as they seek to underline it will be the Treasury alone which will assess whether the conditions are right for euro-entry.

However, many at Westminster suspect the Europe Minister has been tacitly licensed by Downing Street to speak out favourably on the currency. The real battle, they suggest, is between a cautious Treasury and an enthusiastic No 10.

Hain told Le Figaro: 'Let us be clear - the enemies of the euro are also the enemies of Europe. It would be a tragedy, even, to stay out forever.'

It was being made clear on the Chancellor's behalf today that the Government had constantly said the Treasury would complete its assessment by June 2003. Brown has used a recent row with Brussels over high levels of debt in Britain and Germany to underline that he believes the Government's prime duty is to rebuild the UK's ailing public services.

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