'Barking mad eurocrats want to ­rename the English Channel the ­“Anglo-French Pond”. Under a Government-backed scheme, bankrolled by British taxpayers, officials have been working on breaking down national barriers by creating new regions for Europe. Under the plan, a vast swathe of southern England was joined to western Belgium and northern France in 2003 to become the Arc Manche ­region of Europe. With the first map of the region ­being drawn up, the divide between the countries is being played down by giving the Channel a new name.

Documents seen by the Sunday ­Express reveal that the Department for Communities and Local Government is backing the downgrade. The Channel was named the Oceanus Britannicus by the geographer Ptolemy in the second century AD. Yet more than £1.1million of taxpayers’ cash is being used to erase it from maps that will be sent to schools across the south of England. Caroline Spelman, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and ­Local Government, said: “British ­taxpayers’ money is being used literally to wipe our nation off the map, erase a thousand years of history and downgrade the English Channel to the insulting status of a ‘pond’.

“Hard-working families and pensioners will be outraged to see Gordon Brown’s department that has been ­responsible for a doubling of their council tax is wasting their cash on this propaganda.'

Read more: Eurocrats Want to Rename the English Channel ' The Anglo French Pond'