Brown tells Brussels to stop meddling

Mr Brown: "Our public investment plans will go ahead"

Chancellor Gordon Brown has told the European Commission to stop meddling in his spending plans.

At a meeting of finance ministers in Brussels on Monday he accused the Commission of an "unwarranted interference in British affairs" after it called on the Chancellor to rein in his spending on public services.

I am not prepared for the European Commission to give us lectures about what the level of spending should be in this country

Gordon Brown

Mr Brown told BBC News it had made a mistake in "undervaluing the importance of investment in each economy in Europe but particularly in the case of Britain".

But shadow chancellor Michael Portillo used the row to warn of the dangers of joining the euro, accusing the Chancellor of wanting to "surrender control" of Britain's economic policy to Brussels.

No lectures

The dispute centres on the balance of spending to national income.

Some commentators have suggested Mr Brown's proposals to boost spending on health, education and transport will see the public coffers slip into deficit by 2003/04.

This would contravene EC economic guidelines that say member states' budgets should be close to balance or in surplus.

The Chancellor had already said he would not accept "lectures" from the Commission about appropriate levels of spending.

Rejecting the criticism as "short-sighted", he has insisted that Labour's public investment plans will go ahead.

Mr Portillo warned of the dangers of the "federalist agenda"

At Monday's meeting he argued that his spending proposals were necessary to double the level of investment in the UK's ailing infrastructure.

He accused the Commission of a "serious error of judgement", and of having an unsophisticated analysis.

It had "no business making recommendations concerning the level of public spending in individual member states," he added.

Losing power

Eurosceptics have leapt on the clash as evidence that Britain has lost power to Brussels, a trend they say will continue as the country edges closer to joining the euro.

Mr Portillo said: "It's pretty rich for Mr Brown to complain about European interference when he plans to hand over economic and monetary policy to unelected officials in the EU."

Warning of the dangers of the "federalist agenda", the shadow chancellor pledged to defend the pound.

He said: "The Conservative party will not let the Labour agenda for deeper European integration be swept to one side during the general election campaign."