Brown to Pay Price of Blair's EU Largesse

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has shifted the Government's position while Chairing a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers, to discuss the 2007-13 EU Budget. He is allowing a cut in the rebate to be considered, providing the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) undergoes major reform. Britain has received a rebate since 1984, when Prime Minister Thatcher pointed out how little this country was receiving in European farm subsidies.

Nigel Farage MEP said "This is the first signal from the Foreign Secretary that the rebate is now a negotiating pawn at this meeting. Risking £3.5billion of British money is the crowning act of the inactive and lethargic UK Presidency of the EU. The whole budgetary process has been under a cloud since the European Court of Auditors decided not to agree the EU budget last week. Mr Straw is willing to throw away this money in an effort to reform the CAP. However, the CAP is unreformable. The French and the Irish will never cede their agricultural subsidies. To put the rebate at risk on a tenuous hope of "reform" shows how little they care about British interests, which they ought to be using the British Presidency to preserve."

Mr Farage added: "I am sure that this issue has done little to heal the rift between the Treasury and Downing Street. As a result of Tony Blair's European posturing, a £3 billion hole may appear in the UK Budget. The Chancellor must be livid. If Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister in the near future, he will be responsible for balancing the books".