Osborne’s City safeguards

Before David Cameron’s trip to Berlin later today, George Osborne appeared on the Today Programme to emphasise that in the event of a Eurozone banking union, Britain would require safeguards.
 
Given the importance of finance to this country, Cameron and Osborne can’t accept anything that creates a two-tier single market for financial services. The Tory leadership is also acutely aware that it was this issue that led to Cameron vetoing a proposed treaty last year. It would be politically dangerous for Cameron to do anything that could be characterised as undermining his own veto.
 
One option being floated by some Tory Eurosceptics is a British veto on financial services. This would mean the other 26 countries formally accepting that nothing could be done on financial services at an EU, as opposed to a Eurozone level, without Britain’s agreement. This would mean in practice, the suspension of qualified majority voting in this area.