Darling’s Last Act: Leaving a £15 Billion Bill for British Taxpayers

David Cameron is facing an immediate clash with Europe after Alistair Darling prepared last night to sign up to a massive new fund to back the euro that could cost British taxpayers £15 billion.

In what could be his last act as Chancellor, Mr Darling went along with plans to double to ¤110 billion (£96 billion) the bailout fund designed to prevent a repeat of the Greek financial crisis.

The emergency finance, used to help Latvia and Hungary last year, will now be available to eurozone countries for the first time as well.

The fund, known as the “stabilisation mechanism”, increases by a further ¤60 billion the ¤50 billion that the EU can already use to help countries with balance-of-payments problems. Britain was already exposed to a potential £7 billion cost under the original scheme and its ultimate liability under the enhanced plan will be a further £8 billion, Treasury officials say.'

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