Europe crusade: Euro bail-out costs UK households £800 a year

FAMILIES are facing crippling extra tax bills of nearly £800 to fund European Union emergency bail-outs, it emerged last night.

Britain could be hit with a 20bn liability for rescue packages for Ireland Greece and others Britain could be hit with a £20bn liability for rescue packages for Ireland, Greece and others

A new estimate from Brussels sources suggested Britain could be hit with an eye-watering £20billion liability for rescue packages for Ireland, Greece and other debt-stricken nations.

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The total is equivalent to £773 for every family in the country.

There are fears the £72billion bail-out package agreed for Ireland – including £6.6billion in loans from Britain – will not be enough to prevent the euro collapsing. But further demands for British cash to shore up the single currency are bound to infuriate hard-pressed taxpayers.

Officials at the European Central Bank were yesterday understood to be discussing the possibility of further bail-outs for Portugal and other eurozone nations hit by market turmoil as a result of their huge debts.

It could mean British taxpayers having to pour in billions more through the EU and the International Monetary Fund.

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As well as the Irish bail-out, the UK has been forced to ­contribute £1.1billion to an EU rescue package for Greece.

The bail-outs agreed so far will add around £300 to the average family’s tax bill. But critics are concerned the total could more than double by the end of the financial year in April.

Tory backbencher Douglas Carswell said: “This is a time when families are facing real hardship.

“People feeling the pinch will be appalled to see politicians squandering billions on a currency that we are not even part of. It is throwing good money after bad.”

Mats Persson, of the Eurosceptic think tank Open Europe, said: “Few people realise how deeply the UK is already involved in the eurozone rescue operation.”

It is our membership of the EU Financial Stability Mechanism that means Britain is liable for the troubles of the eurozone.

Former Chancellor Alistair Darling signed the UK up to the mechanism in the final days of the last Labour Government.

Last weekend his successor George Osborne won an agreement that Britain will no longer be liable for eurozone bail-outs after 2013. But many critics are furious that he did not rip up the deal immediately.

Tory MP Bill Cash said the mechanism could be unlawful.

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