Brown's spending hits euro entry

BRITAIN'S finances could be too shaky for it to join the euro, official figures suggested today. Thanks to eurosceptic Chancellor Gordon Brown's spending splurge on health, education and other services, the Government is heading for a £33bn gap in the public finances this financial year.

Gloomy accounts from the Office of National Statistics showed the gap between incoming taxes and spending last month was £10.1bn - a record June deficit and more than £1bn worse than City forecasts.

If, as economists now predict, Brown has a £33bn gap when he reconsiders his five tests for euro entry next March, it would mean a borrowing overshoot of £6bn beyond his Budget forecasts.

It would also mean Britain breaching the Maastricht entry criterion that all countries wanting to join the single currency must prove they are not borrowing more than 3% of gross domestic product. Euroland would thus have to block a British application.

'You could argue that with his spending plans, Gordon Brown is preventing us from joining the euro with back door methods,' said CSFB economist Neville Hill.