A Tory government would never adopt the euro, William Hague has declared.
On the tenth anniversary of the single currency, he warned that senior Labour politicians were seeking to use the pound's decline as an excuse to scrap it.
And the Shadow Foreign Secretary said he doubted the Government's pledge of a referendum on the euro because it had failed to deliver one on the EU constitution.
Mr Hague also seized on remarks by Business Secretary Lord Mandelson that 'our aim, our goal, should be to join the single currency'.
In an interview with the Mail Online, the Tory heavyweight said: 'Something of a cheek, isn't it - to make this country's economy so badly prepared for recession that our currency goes weak at the knees, and then say that if it's that weak we had better get rid of it?'
The issue of euro entry, long dormant in Britain, is back on the agenda amid a dramatic run on the pound.
The fall - nearly twice the size of the humiliating devaluation of 1967 - has brought sterling close to parity with the EU currency.
Jose Manuel Barroso, the EU President, claims 'the people who count in Britain' have told him privately they were now ready to sign up because 'if we had the euro we would have been better off'.
But Mr Hague said: 'As the pound lurches, veers and staggers, this week's falls have brought it to within an ace of parity to the euro, so that in tourist exchange rates one pound is already sometimes worth about 99 cents.
'Only a year ago there were 1.4 euros to the pound. As the pound has plummeted in recent months, so there have been the first flickerings of life around an idea dormant for the last six or seven years: that Britain, too weak to maintain its own currency, should sign up to the euro instead.
'When you think about it the idea of abandoning your currency when it has lost a lot of its value is a pretty stupid one - rather like thinking that if you have let your house run down in value until it is the same as a smaller one next door, it is a good time to swap.
'We all know that in that situation you have to learn to look after your house better.
'A Conservative government under David Cameron would have no ministers telling Brussels we would be better off without the pound and no goal of joining the euro one day. We would never join the euro.'
More: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...n-euro-vows-Ha
On the tenth anniversary of the single currency, he warned that senior Labour politicians were seeking to use the pound's decline as an excuse to scrap it.
And the Shadow Foreign Secretary said he doubted the Government's pledge of a referendum on the euro because it had failed to deliver one on the EU constitution.
Mr Hague also seized on remarks by Business Secretary Lord Mandelson that 'our aim, our goal, should be to join the single currency'.
In an interview with the Mail Online, the Tory heavyweight said: 'Something of a cheek, isn't it - to make this country's economy so badly prepared for recession that our currency goes weak at the knees, and then say that if it's that weak we had better get rid of it?'
The issue of euro entry, long dormant in Britain, is back on the agenda amid a dramatic run on the pound.
The fall - nearly twice the size of the humiliating devaluation of 1967 - has brought sterling close to parity with the EU currency.
Jose Manuel Barroso, the EU President, claims 'the people who count in Britain' have told him privately they were now ready to sign up because 'if we had the euro we would have been better off'.
But Mr Hague said: 'As the pound lurches, veers and staggers, this week's falls have brought it to within an ace of parity to the euro, so that in tourist exchange rates one pound is already sometimes worth about 99 cents.
'Only a year ago there were 1.4 euros to the pound. As the pound has plummeted in recent months, so there have been the first flickerings of life around an idea dormant for the last six or seven years: that Britain, too weak to maintain its own currency, should sign up to the euro instead.
'When you think about it the idea of abandoning your currency when it has lost a lot of its value is a pretty stupid one - rather like thinking that if you have let your house run down in value until it is the same as a smaller one next door, it is a good time to swap.
'We all know that in that situation you have to learn to look after your house better.
'A Conservative government under David Cameron would have no ministers telling Brussels we would be better off without the pound and no goal of joining the euro one day. We would never join the euro.'
More: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...n-euro-vows-Ha
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