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Financial Services Bill

As a number of colleagues across the House will have noticed, the Treasury Committee took the highly unusual step of tabling a new clause, which is signed by all but one member of that Committee. As hon. Members will be aware, the Committee feels strongly that this Bill is defective in a number of respects, and needs a good deal of attention and improvement. That is because the Bill will hand the Governor of the Bank of England"““unprecedented new powers to shape the British economy. While continuing to set interest rates, the Bank will take over the supervision of commercial banks and insurers, be responsible for…tackling threats to financial stability…and have the power to restrict lending on mortgages, or order banks to increase their capital…one…man or woman will wield all these powers. This individual will arguably be as powerful as the chancellor””." As drafted, the Bill seems to fly"““in the face of all ideas of modern governance, let alone parliamentary accountability.””" Those are not just my personal views; they summarise reasonably well the views of the whole Treasury Committee. As it happens, I have not said anything off my own bat yet; everything that I have said so far is a verbatim quotation from an article by the previous Chancellor, the right hon. Member for Edinburgh South West (Mr Darling).