Darling accused of breaking guidelines over big bank loans
CHANCELLOR Alistair Darling broke guidelines by not disclosing loans of more than £60bn to Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS last year, a top opposition MP said yesterday.
Tory MP Edward Leigh, who heads the cross-party Public Accounts Committee, said Darling went against ministerial guidelines and past practice by not telling him and the Labour chairman of the Treasury committee, John McFall, about the loans.
Darling told parliament earlier yesterday that he had chosen not to make public some £61.6bn of emergency loans by the Bank of England to RBS and Lloyds when he approved them at the height of the credit crunch last year, to avoid a repeat of 2007’s run on Northern Rock’s deposits.
But Leigh , whose committee scrutinises government spending, said Darling should have told him and McFall in private, in line with finance ministry guidelines.
“I am greatly disturbed that the decision was taken to by-pass the rules in this case and would appreciate a full explanation from you,” Leigh said in a letter to Darling released by the Public Accounts Committee.