Eurozone crisis could provoke violence and push people towards extremism, says Tory cabinet minister

The Eurozone crisis threatens to push millions of people across the continent into the arms of extremists and provoke violence, a former Tory Cabinet minister will warn today.

Liam Fox, one of the party’s most prominent Eurosceptics, will call for Britain to have a “new looser relationship” with the European Union – and forecast anger and violence within member states if it is not overhauled.

Speaking in Norway, the former Defence Secretary will argue that it is ironic that the turmoil in the EU – set up as a bulwark against nationalism following the Second World War – is driving its citizens into more extreme positions.

Dr Fox will say: “Hardship and a sense of injustice are the mother and father of extremism and we must be careful – very careful – to ensure that as the Eurozone’s wealthiest push for ever closer union to secure their own interests, it does not push others in to a place their people do not want to be.

“The rise of the True Finn Party in Finland and other far right and far left groupings across the EU is a warning that tolerances are already being tested.”

Recent riots and Athens against austerity measures imposed by governments determined to remain in the single currency may be “just the tip of the iceberg”, he will argue.

“How tragic and unforgivable it would be if the blind dogma of those who see the euro as an indispensable — and irreversible — part of the drive to ever closer union would foster the same sentiments of nationalist fervour,” Dr Fox will say.