Brown To Blame Says Whistleblower

The HBOS whistleblower sacked after he warned about reckless lending has told Sky News he will release more than 30 documents that prove Gordon Brown is to blame for Britain's banking crisis. Alistair Bunkall reports on the furore.

So who knew what, when and where do we point the finger of blame? The paper trail is working its way up Downing Street as allegations threatened to become corroborations. The charge is that Gordon Brown as chancellor knew that HBOS was taking risks and failed to do anything about it. Paul Moore the whistleblower says he has proof, the Prime Minister says there is nothing to prove.

"The reason that HBOS failed was not because of these specific allegations and the result of them, the reason it failed was because of its business model, its whole business model was wrong."

But not so, says Mr. Moore who claims to have 30 documents which showed responsibility lies firmly at the feet of Gordon Brown. In the statement to Sky News last night, he said that “I have detailed corroborative evidence that supports my allegations, and I maintain in the strongest possible way that the KPMG report that Gordon Brown, the FSA and Sir James Crosby rely on will not withstand truly independent public scrutiny.”

It could very well be just the evidence that the opposition has so desperately wanted in order to link Gordon Brown to the financial crisis. "These papers, if they bear out what Mr. Moore says will certainly be valuable ammunition for the Tories(英国保守党), for what they have been trying to do is link Gordon Brown directly to the failure of the banks to say that this crisis happened on his watch, and that as chancellor he failed in the key job of monitoring and regulating the banks."

And the dark cloud of nationalization still hangs ominously over the Lloyds Banking Group. It's today defended decision to award bonuses to retail and commercial staff. But the troubled tie between Lloyds and HBOS is being criticized as a shotgun marriage. The reason that Paul Morre's allegations are potentially so important, is because for the first time in this financial crisis, accountability is creeping up towards the door of No.10, But they said they are still just allegations and some might say, from a man who has an axe to grind against companies who sacked him. It also remains to be seen just what are in all those thirty documents that he intends to make available. Alistair Bunkall, Sky News, Downing Street.