Hain plays down euro talk
The Welsh Secretary, Peter Hain, has sought to play down reports that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has persuaded the Prime Minister that the time is not right for Britain to join the euro.
Mr. Hain made the comments after reports surfaced in the BBC that the Chancellor was not satisfied his five economic tests for entry into the single currency had been met and that his advice to the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, had been accepted – albeit reluctantly.
‘These stories are running just about daily in different newspapers and now I see that the BBC is running it’, Mr Hain said last night. ‘The fact is that the Chancellor is making his economic assessment and will be announcing the results of that shortly.’
‘He is discussing the details with the Prime Minister and the cabinet is involved in that as well. The original decision was taken to go down this course back in 1997 and we are at the endgame. There really is nothing more to say than that.’
The Welsh Secretary’s comments come after the European commissioner Chris Patten denounced the UK government’s cautious stance on the euro ahead of Gordon Brown’s statement on his five economic tests.
Claiming that the tests were a vehicle for the Chancellor’s veto of a referendum, Mr Patten yesterday suggested that Tony Blair’s apparent lack of leadership on this issue had allowed the UK to become ‘semi-detached’ from the rest of the European Union.
The commissioner also criticised the Treasury’s attitude, which he argued appeared to be that ‘Europe’s economy is not yet worthy of us’, although this is unlikely to deter Mr Brown from giving a thumbs down for the time being when he announces a decision on the tests – which he has undertaken to do by June 7 at the latest.
