Eurobond protest

GORDON BROWN (pictured), the Chancellor of the Exchequer, yesterday re-iterated his opposition to European Commission proposals for a withholding tax on Eurobonds.

He told fellow EU finance ministers at a regular summit in Brussels: "Because inclusion of Eurobonds would cause unacceptable damage to EU financial markets, we believe they should be excluded from the directive's scope."

City trade bodies have argued the extension of the tax to Eurobonds could cost thousands of jobs across the European Union.