PRESS ASSOCIATION -- The eurozone debt crisis is "much more serious" than the continuing furore surrounding phone hacking at The News of the World and a solution is urgently required, a Tory former chancellor and prominent eurosceptic has said.
Lord Lamont of Lerwick was speaking ahead of a key meeting of eurozone leaders on Thursday to seek to agree a solution to Greece's debt problems, amid fears that the contagion may spread to the far larger Italian economy.
Lord Lamont, who headed the Treasury from 1990-93, told peers: "While we are all obsessed about Rupert Murdoch and News International, there is a much more serious crisis growing on the European continent."
There were two paths open to the eurozone, he said. One was to recognise a default by Greece now or, if that was judged "too risky" to the banking sector, for the eurozone to "do whatever is necessary to stop the bickering" among the 17 governments.
Lord Lamont urged European leaders to "come up now with a comprehensive solution and not to delay it to the autumn, which would be immensely damaging to Italy".
Treasury commercial secretary Lord Sassoon, replying at question time in the Lords, said: "I would certainly agree about the relative seriousness of different crises that are around at the moment. And the eurozone crisis is extremely serious."
The Tory minister commended Lord Lamont's "words of wisdom" but stressed that it was not for UK ministers to "lecture" the eurozone about what to do.
"We look with considerable interest to see what the eurozone meeting comes up with," Lord Sassoon added.
A retired economics professor, Labour's Lord Peston, warned against exaggerating the eurozone's problems by referring to it as "a crisis", which he saw as "immensely damaging".
"Overall, the eurozone has been a great success," Lord Peston said, with more and more world trade being carried out in euros.