Winchester MP Steve Brine has applauded a "line in the sand" on Eurozone financial assistance but said he greatly regrets a watering down of today's motion in the House of Commons.
He called on Government Ministers to stay true to their promises on future bailouts after inheriting what he called 'unfunded' promises from Alistair Darling.
Under rules agreed by Labour last May, after the election but before George Osborne had assumed control at HM Treasury when the coalition was formed, Britain is now legally tied into supporting Portugal through something called the European Financial Stability Mechanism (EFSM).
This does not involve handing over a cheque but the UK has a contingent liability as a result of our membership of this mechanism and the IMF. To protect UK taxpayers we have successfully argued for tough conditions to be attached to that support to reduce the risk of default.
As a result of this Government's negotiation since taking office the UK will now no longer be part of the permanent EU bailout fund from 2013.
MPs had been expecting (Tuesday) to vote on a motion put forward by Conservative MP Mark Reckless, as part of a special debate from the new Back Bench Business Committee. However, an amendment was proposed at the 11th hour by backbenchers. It was tabled by Daventry Tory MP and former MEP, Chris Heaton-Harris.
A subsequent ruling from the Speaker (John Bercow) meant the Heaton-Harris amendment was selected and voted on, making Mark Reckless' original motion obsolete.
The Reckless motion said "... This House requires the Government to place the EFSM on the agenda of the next meeting of the Council of Ministers", while the Heaton-Harris amendment watered that down to say "... urges the Government to raise the issue of the EFSM at the next meeting of the Council of Ministers". Full text of both are available via the links above.
Steve said: "Once again the intricacies of the Commons weave a tangled web which leave many inside (let alone outside) utterly bemused. I thought my colleague Mark Reckless had put forward a strong motion and I know there was a lot of support for it on the backbenches.
"But in the end it was overlooked thanks to the Speakers ruling and we didn't even get the chance to vote for it. The amendment was not quite as tough and I regretted that very much but I wasn't going to vote in a way that meant I had actually refused to push Ministers to put the EFSM on the agenda at the very next Council of Ministers meeting when we had the chance. It was (I hope) a line in the sand and made very clear to Ministers.
"Alistair Darling really dumped us in it during the dying days of Gordon Brown's Government with more unfunded actions, even when George Osborne said he did not support us signing up to this, and this is I afraid a casualty of the delay caused by the hung Parliament we found ourselves with last May.
"My view is clear, Britain is not in the Euro and I don't think we should join the Euro. For that reason, not to mention the fact we are having to make some hugely difficult spending decisions at home right now thanks to Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling's disastrous stewardship of the UK economy, we should not have to be spending British taxpayers money bailing out the increasingly unstable single currency."