Cable: Northern Rock report is account of Treasury’s mismanagement

11.26.00am GMT Fri 20th Mar 2009

Commenting on the NAO report into the nationalisation of Northern Rock, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable said: "This report is a damning account of the Treasury's mismanagement of the Northern Rock crisis."

"The Government's inability to stop Northern Rock issuing high risk Together mortgages even after the bank started receiving state aid is a total disgrace.

"With billions of pounds of public money at stake, the least taxpayers should expect is that basic due diligence of the company's loan book should have taken place before nationalisation. It seems ministers were keen to hide the scale of the bill that taxpayers were being asked to pick up.

"The fact that resolving shortcomings in the tripartite system wasn't seen as a priority shows that Gordon Brown had his head in the sand. Ministers failed to listen to any of the warnings about the brewing storm."