Ministers will tomorrow again be pressed to publish documents revealing why building society-turned-bank Bradford & Bingley was nationalised and broken up at the height of the financial crisis while other struggling institutions were allowed to continue trading.
Philip Davies (Con, Shipley) has secured the morning debate in Westminster Hall where he will press shadow Labour ministers to say why B&B was treated differently by the previous administration from RBS, Northern Rock and HBOS – and also urge Treasury ministers to publish documents about the demise of the Crossflatts-based bank.
The 90-minute parliamentary debate has been welcomed by David Blundell, chairman of the Bradford & Bingley Action Group representing around one million former shareholders. He has urged BBAG members to press their MPs to attend the debate.
He said getting the debate was “a major step forward” in the campaign after years of obfuscation by politicians and civil servants over BBAG’s demands, in spite of several Freedom of Information requests for more details.
Mr Davies said: “I have asked for this debate on behalf of nearly one million Bradford & Bingley share and bond holders who still do not know how or why their company was expropriated in a way that destroyed it as an ongoing business unlike other banks, such as Royal Bank of Scotland and Halifax Bank of Scotland, which had far weaker balance sheets.
“This was extremely disappointing for the shareholders, many of whom remain outraged by what they consider to be legalised theft.”
The MP said B&B’s fate was decided in a September 2008 telephone call between then Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who was at the White House, and Chancellor Alistair Darling.
Mr Davies will claim in the debate that since originally denying that any documents on the B&B affair existed, the Cabinet Office later admitted that held relevant records but refused to release them on the grounds of public interest. It had also refused to state whether the nationalisation decision had secured Cabinet approval, again on the grounds of public interest.
“It is our view that public interest demands full disclosure of the facts in order to secure the truth in this matter,” said Mr Davies.
He claimed that B&B shareholders would have remained ignorant of the nationalisation process but for Gordon Brown’s book Beyond the Crash which included details.
Mr Davies will press for three key questions to be answered: the exact reason for the expropriation of B&B; whether a rights issue of shares should have been allowed and whether shareholders were wrongly induced to subscribe only weeks before the nationalisation; and, thirdly, whether the comments concerning the strength of the company only days before nationalisation were at best misleading.
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