Osborne blow to Scottish bid for currency union
CHANCELLOR George Osborne is set to deliver a severe blow to Scottish hopes of a currency union if the nation votes for independence later this year.
In a speech tomorrow Osborne will set out his hardest line yet on the future of the pound if the United Kingdom splits, the Prime Minister signalled at a press conference yesterday.
“I think it would be very difficult to justify a currency union post-independence,” Cameron warned. “But I think it is very important that we set out these arguments in a very clear and rational way.” That responsibility would fall to the chancellor, he added.
Osborne hinted at a stronger message on monetary union in a Lords select committee hearing last week, telling members: “Alex Salmond’s claims about the currency were pretty effectively demolished by the governor of the Bank of England.”
He added that Mark Carney’s speech made clear “that the conditions for a successful monetary union require the ceding of sovereignty and the creation of a banking union” and that such a solution would be “unworkable.”