EU bail-out bombshell

TAXPAYERS may be forced to pour even more cash into a rescue deal for failing European nations.

Chilling sign is enough to send shivers through Ireland s ailing economy in a wintry Dublin yesterda Chilling sign is enough to send shivers through Ireland’s ailing economy in a wintry Dublin yesterda

A bail-out agreed by Chancellor George Osborne means Britain could have to find billions of pounds more to help Portugal and other debt-laden countries such as Spain and Belgium if their economies need to be rescued, as some experts are predicting.

Any further deals would come on top of almost £6billion in loans and guarantees already handed to Ireland.

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Last night Emma Boon of the TaxPayers’ Alliance campaign group said: “It is tremendously unfair that British taxpayers could end up having to pay more for the mistakes of the eurozone countries.

“Households are struggling as it is and the Government is having to get the public finances in order. We cannot accept an extra burden.”

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Senior Tory backbencher Douglas Carswell said last night: “The trouble is the small print of the deal they let through exposes us to euro bail-out liabilities that far exceed the amount we’ve shaved off public spending.

“We’re spun a line that the Chancellor has blocked our permanent participation in this bail-out mechanism. But another way of looking at it is that he’s ensured we face almost open-ended liabilities to bail-out the euro until 2013 – and we’re not even members.”

Treasury officials insisted that the UK had been tied into the fund by the previous Chancellor Alistair Darling in the final hours of the last Labour Government.

But Mr Carswell insisted that Mr Osborne would have been consulted over the measures and said coalition ministers could have scrapped the deal.

“The agreement was never put to Parliament,” he said. “Incoming ministers could have stopped it.

“Seeing as how the deal puts the UK on the spot for billions of pounds under a qualified majority vote in Brussels, it might have been worth at least challenging.”

Details of Britain’s commitment to the rescue fund emerged yesterday amid growing fears that Portugal will follow Ireland into financial crisis.

Economist Nouriel Roubini, nicknamed “Dr Doom” after correctly forecasting the credit crunch, predicted that Portugal would be the next country needing an Irish-style bail-out.

“Like it or not, Portugal is reaching the critical point,” he said. “Perhaps it could be a good idea to ask for a bail-out in a preventative fashion.”

Treasury sources yesterday insisted that the deal agreed in Brussels on Sunday night meant that Britain would be freed from any obligation to financial rescue measures for euro countries after 2013.

“After 2013 there will be no UK involvement in any euro-zone mechanism,” said one source close to Mr Osborne.

Britain could veto any attempt by the EU to extend the country’s involvement in the financial stability mechanism, the source added.

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