Alarm as Labour praises the Euro

SUSPICIONS that Labour is plotting to ditch the pound increased last night after the party’s official European manifesto praised the euro.

WARNING William Hague WARNING: William Hague

The pound is not mentioned anywhere in the 15-page document which is packed with hard-Left commitments.

The manifesto seeks to tear up Britain’s right to set its own policies on a host of issues, including immigration.

Last night Conservatives said that Gordon Brown was steering a dangerous course on Europe.

Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said: “This manifesto is an extraordinary lurch to the Left with statutory pay caps and a level of government regulation we last saw in the 1970s – not to mention a handover of our asylum and immigration system to the EU.

“Labour is now charting a dangerous course in Europe, praising the euro without a mention of the pound, and with no qualms about calling for yet more top-down EU control over our lives.

“That Gordon Brown has given his backing to this charter for the hard Left shows how dead New Labour is.”

Details of the manifesto emerged just days after more indications that Labour is plotting to use the economic crisis as an excuse to dump the pound.

Tomorrow the Prime Minister will meet European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso in London – shortly after the Spaniard claimed that key people in Britain were now backing the UK joining the Euro.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson confirmed last week that signing up to the single currency remained Labour’s long-term policy.

The manifesto was formally agreed by all European socialist parties at a meeting in Madrid last weekend.

Labour is committed to fighting next June’s European elections on its various planks.

The document says the euro has played a very effective role in protecting European economies in the context of the global financial crisis.

Alongside such warm words for the single currency, the manifesto includes a barrage of measures that would massively increase Brussels control over virtually every aspect of British life and hamper business with even more red tape.

These include a European Social Progress Pact, which would set standards for social, health and education policy.

The document also demands workers’ rights to information and consultation and gaining work experience with a European Charter for Internships.

On the economy it demands pay caps for the successful, proposing that limits are also needed on top executive pay and bonuses, notably so that earnings reflect losses as well as profits.

Most controversially, the document demands more EU control over Britain’s right to its own immigration policies.

A new European Migration Policy would set common standards and include a European Charter for the Integration of Migrants.

If any of the polices were adopted, they would smash Britain’s opt-outs secured since the Conservatives signed the Maastricht treaty in 1992.

Timothy Kirkhope, Conservative leader in the European Parliament, said: “For the past four years of this Parliament, Labour MEPs have consistently voted for Socialist policies that damaged Britain’s political and economic interests.”

A Downing Street spokesman said that the Government’s long-standing position was that in principle there were benefits to the UK in euro membership, But, he added, the Government’s conditions for membership had so far not been met.

On social issues, the spokesman said: “We will always do what is best for the British people and the British economy.”

And he added that Britain’s opt-outs were safe.

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