Hammond says Labour cannot escape blame for bank lending fiasco

Philip Hammond has called on the Government to “stop talking and start acting” in order to get banks lending to businesses again.

The Chancellor, Alistair Darling, met with bank bosses today about the issue – but Philip warned that “more meetings will not get credit flowing again”.

He said, “After all the fuss and fanfare around today’s meeting, the outcome will not make one jot of difference to struggling businesses up and down the country.”

And he stressed that, while the banks must take some of the blame, the Government “cannot escape responsibility either”:

“They have been talking about this problem – and claimed on more than one occasion they had a solution – for months now while jobs and businesses continue to be lost. Alistair Darling has been asleep on the job and the public will take his synthetic anger with a pinch of salt.”

Philip, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, called on the Government to adopt our proposal of a national loan guarantee scheme to reduce risk and take away the excuse for not lending more.