London : The British government still hopes to make a profit from its multi-billion-pound rescue of major British banks during the financial crisis, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said yesterday.
Speaking at a campaign-style event before an election that must be held by June, Brown also made several arguments about why it would not be appropriate for Britain to swap its pound for the euro single currency at present.
Finance Minister Alistair Darling also told The Scotsman newspaper in an interview published yesterday that Britain was not considering adopting US President Barack Obama's proposal for a levy on banks to repay taxpayers for bailouts.
"What we are trying to do with the banks is to make sure that we do not pay anything — and this is the same as Obama — for the rescue of the banks, so we get all the money back," Brown said in answer to a question at a conference organised by the Fabian Society, a centre-left thinktank.
"In the budget we changed our figures because we believe that we will get more back from the banks and probably make a profit..." he said. "Our aim is that no member of the public has to pay for the rescuing of the banks." Huge bailouts during the financial crisis have left the British government holding 84 per cent of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and 43 per cent of Lloyds Banking Group.
Asked if the conditions were right for Britain to join the euro, Brown saidhe was in favour of the euro in principle, but added: "I'd be very worried, as we've seen, that the British housing market is different from the European housing market, worried that the ... balance in our economy is different from the rest of Europe.
"I think at the moment it's unlikely that the conditions are there for us to actually move forward."
