Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister – in the House of Commons at 4:00 pm on 22 April 2009.
Not at all. The hon. Gentleman is totally misrepresenting those proposals. I think that the Government made a mistake in not tackling some of the regulation, and their tripartite arrangements clearly do not work—nobody has been in charge, and a simple example of that is Northern Rock. I am told that six months after the Government took it over, Northern Rock was still lending 120 per cent. mortgages—even though the Government were in charge—and there is something wrong in the regulatory system if that can continue to happen.