But Mr Osborne, who had no direct role in last week’s eurozone financial summit in Brussels despite the region accounting for 40 per cent of UK export trade, positively welcomed the idea of Britain going into the slow lane of a two-speed EU.
Eurozone countries, answerable to the European Central Bank, should be encouraged to integrate tax and spending policies, and raise money through the issue of guaranteed eurozone bonds.
Mr Osborne told the Financial Times: “We have to accept that greater eurozone integration is necessary to make the single currency work and that is very much in our national interest. We should be prepared to let that happen.”
Earlier, Mr Cameron, who reprised similar sentiments for his own 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers, told The Spectator that the eurozone will inevitably head towards “much more single economic government”. Mr Osborne told the FT: “That is very much in our national interest and we should be prepared to let that happen.”
The United Kingdom could remain in an outer EU circle enjoying the benefits of the single market and its 500 million consumers, he argued. Britain is already outside the euro and out of the Schengen passport-free travel area. But Justice Secretary Ken Clarke, a veteran pro-European, ruffled some feathers within his own party when he stated it would be foolish to forever rule out this country joining the single currency, as in politics one can never really say never.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, a former MEP and European Commission official, said Britain’s trading partners and allies expected the country to play a leading role in the EU. “When I hear people almost relish the prospect that somehow this would be an opportunity for the eurozone to rush forward and for the UK to go on a different track to a different future, let’s remember the European club is made up of lots of different clubs within clubs already”, said the Deputy Prime Minister.
