Chris Leslie: George Osborne did not have a shred of evidence for the false allegations he threw around this week |

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Chris Leslie: George Osborne did not have a shred of evidence for the false allegations he threw around this week

Chris Leslie MP, Labour’s Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury, responding to the FT’s publication of the note from UBS bank to the Treasury on reducing Libor in November 2008, said:

“Everybody can now read for themselves the advice to the Treasury from UBS bank in 2008 which the government has this week insinuated is about the deliberate manipulation of the Libor rate.

“In fact, the note simply proposes legitimate policy improvements to the government’s credit guarantee scheme in order to reduce inter-bank lending costs during the credit crunch. This was at a time when the Conservative shadow chief secretary Philip Hammond was complaining that Libor had not fallen sufficiently as a result of that very credit guarantee scheme. There is absolutely nothing in this note about the deliberate fixing of the Libor rate, which Barclays traders were involved in.

“George Osborne did not have a shred of evidence for the false allegations he threw around this week and which his aides have now withdrawn. It’s time the Chancellor had the integrity to do so himself publicly and started getting on with the day job of getting Britain out of his double-dip recession.”