The €500 note should be scrapped because it is mainly used by criminals, Labour politicians say in Monday’s Telegraaf.

They want finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem to lobby the central European bank to take the notes out of circulaton.

‘The €500 note threatens to become an international drugs currency,’ Labour MP Henk Nijboer told the paper. ‘They will soon be using it more often in South America than in Europe… money which no-one uses to pay for anything is not proper currency.’

The Telegraaf points out that the US and Canada have taken high denomination notes out of circulation and that British money exchange offices no longer accept €500 notes after research showed 90% were used by criminals.