This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25028786
The article has changed 8 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
Version 1 | Version 2 |
---|---|
Ed Miliband accuses David Cameron of 'smears' over Co-op | |
(about 3 hours later) | |
Labour has accused David Cameron of launching a "smear campaign" over its dealings with the Co-op Bank and its disgraced ex-chairman Paul Flowers. | |
Ed Miliband will say Mr Cameron has "impugned the integrity of the Labour Party" with his claims. | |
The prime minister has suggested Labour was aware of concerns about Mr Flowers but did "nothing" about them. | |
He has ordered an inquiry into how Mr Flowers was deemed a suitable chairman of the bank. | |
Mr Flowers apologised after a video on the Mail on Sunday website showed him handing over £300 in a car, apparently to buy cocaine. | Mr Flowers apologised after a video on the Mail on Sunday website showed him handing over £300 in a car, apparently to buy cocaine. |
It has since emerged that: | |
David Cameron has claimed the Co-op bank was "driven to the wall" by Mr Flowers, while he approved millions of pounds worth of "soft loans" to the Labour Party. | |
He said the former Methodist minister, who was a business adviser to Mr Miliband, had "trooped in and out of Downing Street under Labour". | |
Labour has hit back by attempting to implicate Chancellor George Osborne in the controversy. | |
The party says Mr Osborne failed to carry out due diligence on the Co-op Bank over its plan to buy more than 600 branches from Lloyds Bank and that he pressed the EU to ease regulation on mutuals, including the Co-op. | |
The Treasury has dismissed the Labour claims as "a total distraction". | |
But Mr Miliband will also attempt to seize the initiative by accusing Mr Cameron of undermining integrity and honesty in politics with his attempts to link Labour to the scandal. | |
BBC business editor Robert Peston said it was unlikely that Mr Osborne would have ordered regulator The Financial Services Authority to make the £750m Lloyds deal happen despite concerns the Co-op had too little capital. | |
He says in his blog: "This can't be the case, because if it was, George Osborne would be signing his own execution by ordering an investigation into all this. | |
"Perhaps more likely is that the FSA simply didn't have the backbone to go against the prevailing political mood, that co-ops and mutuals were a good thing, and needed to be promoted." | |
When Mr Flowers appeared before the Treasury Select Committee of MPs on 6 November, he appeared to have "no grasp" of "basic" facts about the bank, Peston said. | |
Mr Flowers had never worked in the banking sector in "any senior capacity", he said, but had been appointed chairman of the Co-op Bank as a result of a "power struggle within the co-operative movement". | Mr Flowers had never worked in the banking sector in "any senior capacity", he said, but had been appointed chairman of the Co-op Bank as a result of a "power struggle within the co-operative movement". |
The independent inquiry cannot begin until police have concluded their investigation into allegations that Mr Flowers bought and used illegal drugs. | The independent inquiry cannot begin until police have concluded their investigation into allegations that Mr Flowers bought and used illegal drugs. |