SIR – Because Portugal has taken too long to fix its finances, it has become too costly for its Government to borrow new money to pay off its debts and has turned to Europe for help.

But I don’t see why the UK is expected to fork out more than £4 billion when there is a whopping £338 billion in a European Financial Stability Facility funded by all countries using the euro currency.

The UK is not involved in that. And if Spain and possibly Italy want to avoid a similar fate to the Portuguese, they had better get their houses in order and push through the kind of unpopular cuts Chancellor George Osborne is making here – pronto.

D Rhodes, Croscombe Walk, Bradford