William Hague has linked the Tory "save the pound" campaign to future health and education spending.

If the UK joined the single currency and handed interest rates over to the European Central Bank then future public spending would be reliant on "the whims of bankers in Frankfurt", argued Hague.

Shadow chancellor Michael Portillo yesterday renewed his taxation attacks on Labour, warning that Gordon Brown was planning to tax pension contributions of those earning over £30,000 a year.