Cameron calls for Darling sacking

DAVID CAMERON called on Gordon Brown today to sack Chancellor Alistair Darling after the nationalisation of Northern Rock.

PRESSURE Cameron has called for Darling s sacking PRESSURE: Cameron has called for Darling's sacking

The Tory leader said the Black Wednesday crisis of 1992 - when he had been a Treasury adviser - had taught him it was vital for the Chancellor to leave the Government after such episodes.

He said: "I think Alistair Darling does not now have any credibility as Chancellor."

As the Prime Minister today defended his Government's decision to head up the stricken lender at his monthly Downing Street news conference, Cameron said his party would vote against the Bill.

ATTACK Cameron says Darling has no credibility ATTACK: Cameron says Darling has no credibility

And shadow chancellor George Osborne mocked the Government's "dither and delay".

Speaking at a press conference Cameron said: “Let us be in no doubt about what a disaster this day is.

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“The nationalisation of Northern Rock is a disaster for the taxpayer, a disaster for this Government and a disaster for our country.”

Brown defended the decision to bring the bank into public ownership, saying it had been taken in the best interest of the taxpayer.

"We will have and always have put the interests of taxpayers first," he said.

And the new boss of the troubled bank today spoke positively about nationalisation of the bank as "a chance to pull back."

Speaking from the Northern Rock headquarters in Gosforth, Newcastle, Ron Sandler said: "“I want to reassure staff that the process of temporary public ownership is a good thing.

"It gives the bank a period of stability and a chance to pull back from some of the forces that have buffeted it in previous months.”

But Cameron accused the Government of leaving every taxpayer exposed to liabilities of £3,500 through “incompetence”.

Osborne mocked the Government’s “dither and delay”, insisting no previous Chancellor had ever had to come before MPs to announce the nationalisation of a high street bank.

Nationalisation, he said, amounted to the “slow, lingering death of Northern Rock and Britain’s reputation as a major financial services centre” with Mr Darling cast as the “undertaker”.

 

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