Clegg Comments Threatens Coalition Euro Split

The Prime Minister's highly controversial decision not to support the European plan to save the single currency has prompted his pro-European deputy to speak out against the move.

Nick Clegg called the decision "a bitter disappointment" and said Britain risked becoming "isolated and marginalised" from the European Union members.

Several high-profile figures, including the former leader Paddy Ashdown and the party president, Tim Farron, joined Clegg's attack on Cameron's veto of the plan last Thursday.

On Monday morning, Labour's Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander responded to Nick Clegg's comments accusing the deputy Prime Minister of "now agreeing with Labour's argument on every front".

Mr Alexander said Nick Clegg agreed with them that: "The Prime Minister's policy is damaging for Britain. That Britain's isolation will do nothing to protect the City. And that the reason we have ended up here is that the Prime Minister put his Party interest before the national interest. David Cameron has let Britain down."

David Cameron will face MPs later to explain his decision. He and Chancellor George Osborne are expected to say the veto was to protect the City of London from excessive intervention by Europe, but Labour and the UK Independence Party will argue no additional safeguards were achieved.

(DW)