Financial Services Bill

For the sake of clarification, so that Conservative Members are clear on the matter, it has been implied that somehow we favour an unregulated free-for-all on short selling. I hope it is the position of Conservative Front Benchers—it is certainly mine—that short selling and, for that matter, the long derivatives markets need to operate within a framework of regulation, and that we are not in favour of a market in which share price manipulation and fraud such as we saw in the Maxwell case can flourish.