Brown in war over euro

The Chancellor monstered the sickly eurozone in a bid to kill off the PM’s dream of joining the single currency within the next few years. Downing Street unleashed pro-euro ministers to rein Mr Brown in — but he hit back by threatening to appeal over the PM’s head to millions of voters to save Sterling. The Chancellor also revealed their battle will go to the wire by saying his five tests on whether Britain should sign up will now be announced at the latest date possible, in the first week in June. Mr Brown used a GMTV interview to blast the eurozone as doomed — with 15 million on the dole and slow economic growth — without key reforms. He vowed to build alliances with new EU countries such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to tear up the “old Europe” economic model. Mr Brown said archaic labour laws, huge union power and heavy state intervention were plunging Germany back to recession and risked crippling France, Italy and Spain.