BRITAIN: Former Tory chancellor Kenneth Clarke acknowledged yesterday that Britain was unlikely to be able to join the euro with "complete security and confidence" for at least a decade.
The strongly pro-European Mr Clarke admitted that the single currency had so far failed to deliver the hoped for improvements in European productivity and living standards.
His comments, in an interview with the journal Central Banking, quoted in the Daily Telegraph, are likely to be seen as the clearest signal yet that he is preparing a challenge to succeed Michael Howard as Tory leader.
In the past, his europhile leanings, and in particular his support for the euro, had been seen as the biggest obstacle standing in the way of him leading the party, which is far more eurosceptic.
"I do not think there has been a time when the British could have joined with complete security and confidence. I doubt it is possible for 10 years or more," he said in the interview.
He admitted that so far the euro had proved a disappointment to its supporters.
"I thought it would lead to increased productivity, efficiency and living standards and stimulate policy reforms. On that front so far it has been a failure." He was concerned some euro zone members were failing to show the fiscal discipline needed to make the currency a success.
"I am beginning to worry considerably where Italy is going. The Italian government is utterly oblivious of the need to retain some fiscal discipline.
"It is still running a kind of family capitalism without paying any heed to the level of wages or other costs." He went on to criticise the performance of the European Central Bank, which sets interest rates for the euro zone.
"I think many people would agree that the ECB has to rethink the role it plays in the economic life of the nations it serves. It must stop imitating the Bundesbank." In contrast, he praised chancellor Gordon Brown's decision to give the Bank of England the operational independence to set interest rates in the UK. - (PA)