UK won’t be adopting euro

2 December 2008

Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday crushed claims that the recession is steering Britain towards adopting the single European currency, the euro, after the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that UK membership was “closer than before.”

The sterling’s value against the euro has depreciated drastically over the past year, plunging from 1.42 against the euro last December to a near all-time low of 1.17 this morning, radically increasing the cost of buying property in the eurozone.

Consequently, there is a fear amongst some economists and analysts that the value of the UK pound could soon drop to parity with the euro.

In an interview with a French radio station, Barosso claimed: "Some British politicians have already told me: If we had the euro, we would have been better off.”