Labour attacks 'smears' over Co-op

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 21 November 2013 | 19.21

21 November 2013 Last updated at 06:55 ET

Labour has accused David Cameron of launching a "smear campaign" over its dealings with the Co-op Bank and its disgraced ex-chairman Paul Flowers.

Ed Miliband will say Mr Cameron has "impugned the integrity of the Labour Party" with his claims.

The prime minister has suggested Labour was aware of concerns about Mr Flowers but did "nothing" about them.

He has ordered an inquiry into how Mr Flowers was deemed a suitable chairman of the bank.

Mr Flowers apologised after a video on the Mail on Sunday website showed him handing over £300 in a car, apparently to buy cocaine.

It has since emerged that:

  • Mr Flowers resigned as a Labour councillor in Bradford in 2011 after "inappropriate but not illegal adult content" was found on his computer
  • He resigned from running drugs charity Lifeline in 2004 after allegedly lodging false expenses claims. According to Thursday's Daily Mail, the figure involved was £150,000 although the charity has not confirmed this
  • He was convicted of drink-driving in 1990 in Manchester. A Methodist Church disciplinary hearing was held but he was allowed to continue his role in the church
  • In 2005, he referred himself to local authority watchdog Standards Board for England for sending a "joke" message to council colleagues that was alleged to have had "sexual connotations," according to the Daily Telegraph

David Cameron has claimed the Co-op bank was "driven to the wall" by Mr Flowers, while he approved millions of pounds worth of "soft loans" to the Labour Party.

He said the former Methodist minister, who was a business adviser to Mr Miliband, had "trooped in and out of Downing Street under Labour".

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Labour and Co-op Group

  • February 2010 - Paul Flowers attends Downing Street reception, with Ed Miliband present
  • April 2010 - Mr Flowers appointed chairman of Co-op Bank and vice-chairman of Co-op Group
  • September 2011 - Mr Flowers resigns as Labour councillor in Bradford after pornography is found on his council laptop
  • 31 March 2012 - Co-op Group donates £50,000 through Labour Party to support shadow chancellor Ed Balls's office
  • 6 March 2013 - Ed Miliband meets Mr Flowers to discuss banking reform
  • 1 April 2013 - Labour takes out £1.2m loan from Co-op Bank, to be repaid by 2016

Labour has hit back by attempting to implicate Chancellor George Osborne in the controversy.

The party says Mr Osborne failed to carry out due diligence on the Co-op Bank over its plan to buy more than 600 branches from Lloyds Bank and that he pressed the EU to ease regulation on mutuals, including the Co-op.

The Treasury has dismissed the Labour claims as "a total distraction".

But Mr Miliband will also attempt to seize the initiative by accusing Mr Cameron of undermining integrity and honesty in politics with his attempts to link Labour to the scandal.

BBC business editor Robert Peston said it was unlikely that Mr Osborne would have ordered regulator The Financial Services Authority to make the £750m Lloyds deal happen despite concerns the Co-op had too little capital.

He says in his blog: "This can't be the case, because if it was, George Osborne would be signing his own execution by ordering an investigation into all this.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

So why did the FSA allow the Co-op Bank continue to chunter down the track towards this proposed massive expansion?"

End Quote

"Perhaps more likely is that the FSA simply didn't have the backbone to go against the prevailing political mood, that co-ops and mutuals were a good thing, and needed to be promoted."

When Mr Flowers appeared before the Treasury Select Committee of MPs on 6 November, he appeared to have "no grasp" of "basic" facts about the bank, Peston said.

Mr Flowers had never worked in the banking sector in "any senior capacity", he said, but had been appointed chairman of the Co-op Bank as a result of a "power struggle within the co-operative movement".

The independent inquiry cannot begin until police have concluded their investigation into allegations that Mr Flowers bought and used illegal drugs.


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