Yorkshire MP Philip Davies calls for independent inquiry into ‘shabby treatment’ of Bradford & Bingley shareholders

Shipley MP Philip Davies Picture Tony Johnson.Shipley MP Philip Davies Picture Tony Johnson.
Shipley MP Philip Davies Picture Tony Johnson.
A YORKSHIRE MP is supporting calls for the new Prime Minister to launch a public inquiry into the events surrounding the nationalisation of Bradford & Bingley during the height of the financial crisis.

Members of the Bradford & Bingley Action group have written to the Tory leadership candidates calling on them to support “a public inquiry into B&B’s destruction”. The action group believes they are entitled to compensation.

Bradford & Bingley shareholders received no compensation following the bank’s nationalisation. Bradford & Bingley’s loan book was nationalised and its savings arm was sold off in 2008.

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Philip Davies, the Conservative MP for Shipley, said: “I fully support this campaign. Bradford & Bingley was confiscated by the last Labour government, and treated completely differently to every other financial institution which cost many of my constituents their job and the shares they held.

“At the time I know for a fact they knew there would be a surplus after Bradford & Bingley was wound down, and that money belongs to the shareholders as far as I am concerned.

“My constituents deserve answers as to why Bradford & Bingley was uniquely treated so shabbily by the last Labour government and only an independent inquiry has a chance of getting to the bottom of it.”

An HM Treasury spokesperson said: “Bradford & Bingley was nationalised in 2008 to help protect the financial stability of the country. These interventions have already been subject to significant scrutiny, including by the National Audit Office and the Courts, and we do not believe the matter requires further investigation.”

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The spokesman stressed that the Government legislated for former shareholders to receive compensation for their shares in line with their value immediately before the government stepped in.

The value of the shares was determined by an independent valuer who determined that no compensation was payable, the spokesman added.

This decision was referred to the Upper Tribunal, which concluded “that the valuer carried out his valuation function wholly in accordance with the Compensation Scheme.”

“The Government’s interventions in the financial sector have been subject to public scrutiny by the National Audit Office, and the issue of compensation for former B&B shareholders has been tested in the courts. As such the Government does not intend to revisit this issue or initiate an independent enquiry.”

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B&B, which listed on the London Stock Exchange in December 2000, was one of Britain’s best-known building societies, formed from the 1964 merger between the Bradford Equitable Building Society and the Bingley Building Society.

Many of B&B’s one million small investors received shares in the bank when it demutualised in 2000. Most lived in Yorkshire and Lancashire.

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