UK closer to joining euro - Barroso

1:27pm Monday 1st December 2008

The UK is "closer" to joining the euro than ever before, according to European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso.

He said some British politicians were considering signing up to the currency in a bid to beat the effects of the global economic crisis.

He told French radio station RTL: "We are now closer than ever before.

"I'm not going to break the confidentiality of certain conversations, but some British politicians have already told me, 'If we had the euro, we would have been better off'."

But he admitted the majority of people in the UK were still opposed to the idea of joining the single currency.

A Downing Street spokesman said: "We have no comment on this. Our position on the euro is the same - it has not changed."