City safeguards set Britain at odds with EU

"In demanding safeguards that are impossible or unrealistic, Britain would force their partners down the route of the [intergovernmental] fiscal pact," said Charles Grant of the CER think-tank.

"Britain would then have less influence on what its partners discussed, it would lose good will and, worst of all, the European Commission – the protector of the single market – could be weakened and sidelined. The single market for European banking would be divided."