Government must not be left with worst Northern Rock assets - Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable, has today written to Alistair Darling calling on him to explain why the Government is not planning to nationalise Northern Rock's Granite fund, which holds many of the bank's best assets. During yesterday's debate on the bank's nationalisation Dr Cable said the separation of the best mortgages from the nationalised parts of Northern Rock had the appearance of "an asset-stripping operation". The Lib Dems abstained at the bill's third reading, with Dr Cable warning that "we need to build into the Bill provisions to create much more transparency than has existed so far." At today's PMQs Nick Clegg said Gordon Brown seemed to be "jeopardising the interests of British taxpayers all over again by hiving off the bank's best assets elsewhere." He also called on the PM to admit that "if he had acted sooner, he could have saved the taxpayer the tens of millions of pounds frittered away on bidders' costs and prevented the untold damage done to this country's reputation as
