Britain came ‘within weeks’ of scrapping 1p and 2p coins – but the idea was blocked
GEORGE Osborne came "within weeks" of scrapping 1p and 2p coins during his time as Chancellor or the Exchequer before the plan was vetoed by David Cameron.
The copper coins faced scrapping because they are more expensive to produce and people like them less.
Senior figures said that the previous chancellor wanted to make the change in late 2015, after winning the general election, according to .
But The Treasury found that when one and two cent coins were scrapped in Australia it triggered a backlash from charities who benefited from people handing over their spare change.
Mr Cameron also feared the symbolism of the Tory party scrapping small change and then overruled the idea.
Plans to scrap cash transactions altogether by 2020 were also considered in No10.
The former deputy head of the Downing Street unit Daniel Korski argued the move would boost productivity and clamp down on criminal activity.
He said: “The proposal we developed [was] to move towards a totally cashless society.”
But the idea was scrapped because No10 was worried it would “scare people”.
Debit cards are set to overtake cash to become the UK's most frequently-used payment method by 2021, according to figures released by Payment UK last year.
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The UK has been working to update its coins and notes, in a bid to make them more secure and less easy to counterfeit.
In May, old £5 notes were removed from circulation and replaced by new plastic ones.
The new notes are thicket and stiffer than previous ones.
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