Banking (Special Provisions) Bill

I support the Bill. I have to say that some right hon. and hon. Members have rather overlooked the fact that it does not deal just with Northern Rock. It has been prompted by Northern Rock, but it deals with the continuity and continuation of financial stability in the United Kingdom. The aim of the Bill is to foster and maintain confidence in the economy and the financial services sector in the United Kingdom. Other countries—Germany, the United States, France and so on—are, of course, going through banking difficulties as well. In September, the Government were faced with a difficult decision against the backdrop of financial turmoil around the world stemming primarily but not only from the sub-prime market in America. The Government took a bold decision about Northern Rock aimed at maintaining economic stability. By and large, I think that we can say ex post facto, five months later, that that decision was not only the right one but that we have maintained economic and financial stability. The FTSE went up this week, just after nationalisation of Northern Rock was announced. We have record bank profits. We have a thriving financial services sector, which of course is under pressure; not everything in that garden is rosy. It is under some pressure, but as the premier financial services sector in the world now, thanks to this Government, it is under less pressure. Part of the reason for that is what the Government did in respect of Northern Rock. At every opportunity the Conservative party accuses any and every Minister of dithering and, boringly, it levelled that charge again tonight. Over the past five months, the Government have explored the options. They tried to see whether Northern Rock could be sold to some management buy-out, Virgin or whoever. They found that, in terms of protecting the taxpayer, that was a non-starter. But the Government were absolutely right to explore those options. Had the Government not done so and announced in the middle to end of September that they were nationalising Northern Rock, I can only imagine the outcry from the official Opposition. They would have said, quite properly, ““You are being hasty. You have not explored the options. You have not looked at whether it can be sold to another private banking institution.”” So the Opposition are trying to have it, as ever, both ways. If we explore the options, they say that we are dithering. If we do not explore the options, they say, ““You are being hasty and not exploring the options.””