Financial Markets

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for her support, and I am sure that there are many of us on this side of the House who look forward to a time when she chooses to return to the Front Bench. In the meantime, I agree that it is important that we focus on the immediate step of ensuring that the banking system is stabilised. However, she is quite right that, in the long term, the banks are better off in the private sector, and that is something that we will need to manage. However, at the moment the key is to make sure that the banks are properly capitalised, get through this period and rebuild their strength, because that is the best way of ensuring stability.