Tuesday 24 November 2009

Labour MP "staggered" at secret funding for banks

The Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, has today admitted that he lent Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS £61.6bn in secret emergency funding in autumn 2008. Labour MP, and LEAP Chair, John McDonnell said he was “staggered” at the revelation.

John McDonnell MP, LEAP Chair, said:

"I am staggered at the affrontery of the Governor of the Bank of England to risk £61bn of public money covertly, and without any accountability to Parliament.

"At that time I expressed the concerns about the instability of a number of financial institutions and called on the Government to nationalise to stabilise, in order to plan the long-term rebalancing of our economy. This view was derided by the Chancellor and opposition parties but we now know the Government had pumped into these banks enormous sums of taxpayers’ money, seemingly without any enforceable conditions.

"This is no way to run a finance sector, an economy or a government."


Also see Paul Mason's report on BBC Newsnight on 24/11

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