Britain stays out of EU financial crisis deal

[dipsydoodle]

3. EU veto 'no threat to coalition'

The chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, has said the EU veto does not threaten the coalition, defending the Conservatives' and Liberal Democrats' right to disagree over David Cameron's decision to block a new EU agreement.

Amid fears that the rift between the two parties over Cameron's veto could be fatal, the senior Lib Dem cabinet minister said Nick Clegg was entitled to speak out but expressed sympathy for the prime minister's actions, which were described by Clegg as a "bitter disappointment".

"Of course it's right that Nick Clegg is able to speak out as he has ... [but] David Cameron had a very difficult hand to play," Alexander told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Monday. He said the prime minister faced "real intransigence from France and Germany and a clear need to bring something back to the House of Commons to show his own supporters".

Clegg had lashed out at the decision, warning that it could lead to the UK being "isolated and marginalised within the European Union". But Alexander took a conciliatory approach, saying: "There is no threat to the coalition. The coalition was formed to deal with the enormous economic problems that we inherited as a country. That task is the central task of this government."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/dec/12/eu-veto-no-threat-coalition

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