Chancellor to put forward ‘pro-European case’
Gordon Brown has announced that should all the economic tests be met, then the UK should join the single currency.
His comments come ahead of his statement to the Commons on Monday outlining the Treasury’s five economic tests on possible British membership of the euro.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Brown said that the decision had been made following the ‘most rigorous and comprehensive assessment that the Treasury has ever done on an economic issue’.
He told the BBC’s Breakfast with Frost that Britain’s financial services, jobs, housing and investment had been looked at during the considerations.
‘Right at the centre of it is what is the national economic interest for the future and that is why the five tests are so important. In principle I want to join the single currency – in practical terms, we have got to be sure that all the conditions are in the right place and we don’t make the same mistakes of the Exchange Rate Mechanism era.’
He continued to claim that it is now in the ‘patriotic interests for Britain to be part of Europe’.
‘Tony Blair and I have decided, and the Cabinet agreed on Thursday, that after the statement tomorrow, we should put the pro-European case.’
He also criticised the Conservative leader for his anti-European stance: ‘We have got to sweep aside the anti-European prejudice that Iain Duncan Smith is putting forward. The idea that we have got to choose between Europe and America is quite ridiculous.’
However, speaking on the same programme, IDS responded by claiming that the five tests were just a ‘smoke screen for a political judgement’.
‘They are playing games – all they are really trying to do is find a moment when they can win the referendum and then they will enter. The worst thing they can do right now is postpone the decision just for a year or so – British business needs stability.’
When asked about the issue, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Charles Kennedy, said that he would like to see a bill introducing a referendum on the euro, with business operating under a dual pricing scheme in shops.
However, despite his enthusiasm for the euro, the Chancellor is widely expected to say the time is not yet right for Britain to join the single currency when he addresses the Commons tomorrow.
