SENSATIONAL CLAIM: Greece’s economic collapse is BRITAIN’S fault and our banks should pay

GREECE'S catastrophic economic collapse is Britain's fault, a charity has sensationally declared.

The outrageous allegation was made by the Jubilee Debt Campaign, a UK-based charity which pushes for the debts of economically-struggling countries to be cancelled without payment. 

On the eve of the decision to give Greece £9billion in emergency loans, the charity's director Sarah-Jayne Clifton said even an even bigger bailout was needed — and that Britain should pay the price.

She said: "A significant amount of debt needs to be cancelled, not just rescheduled, if the Greek economy is going to have the breathing space it needs to recover.

"And the costs of cancelling the debt should be recovered from the real beneficiaries of bailout loans, including the German, French and British banks that lent recklessly to Greece in the first place."

The claims were blasted by UKIP, which accused the charity of attempting to create a "socialist utopia".

Party spokesperson Jane Collins said: "Rather than Britain being to blame, the British people could seriously help the Greeks by showing them that the best way is out of the EU if we vote to leave on June 23rd.

"Quite why anyone would point the finger of blame at businesses rather than the politicians can only be explained by a severe lack of understanding of what the EU is about, what the IMF is about and how economies work. 

"They must be desperate to protect these left wing institutions which they foolishly believe will bring them their socialist utopia."

She said Greece was struggling due to its decision to join the Eurozone and the subsequent knock-on effect ever since. 

Mrs Collins added: "The reason Greece is in dire financial straits is because they joined the single currency despite everyone knowing this was an awful thing for their economy and their people.

"Now Greek people are desperately looking for jobs but they aren't available because no one is going to set up a business in a country where their national debt is twice the size of their GDP and the EU and the IMF won't let them take the one measure they need to get out of this mess."

Yesterday, Angela Merkel approved plans to bail the ailing economy out once again, with a series of emergency loans set to be approved today. 

In exchange, Greece will sell off 72,000 pieces of private property, raise tax and introduce tariffs on a variety of products including beer.