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Chancellor knew he was selling Lloyds a lemon says Cable

Tue, 24 Nov 2009

“The Government has treated taxpayers like children while expecting them to foot the bill," said the Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor.

Commenting on revelations today that RBS and HBOS were lent £61.6bn in emergency funding last autumn at the height of the financial panic, Vince Cable said:
 
“Given the sheer size of the support these two banks were receiving, it is astonishing that this was kept secret for over a year.
 
“The Government has treated taxpayers like children while expecting them to foot the bill for these banks.
 
“What is particularly concerning is that the Government was pumping billions into HBOS at the exact same time it was convincing Lloyds to take it over.
 
“The Chancellor knew he was selling Lloyds a lemon but he did it anyway to save his own skin.  
 
“The Government only wanted HBOS to be taken over so that it didn’t have to fully nationalise another bank.

“This had nothing to do with economics and everything to do with politics.

“Tomorrow I will be tabling an urgent question so that the Chancellor comes to the House and explains the circumstances surrounding this emergency lending.”