HBOS-Lloyds, as arranged by Gordon Brown?

Is Gordon Brown trying to take credit for the HBOS-Lloyds merger? Sounds implausible, but the blog of Robert Peston, Brown’s biographer, has this snippet:

“I am hearing that this deal has been negotiated at a very high pay grade level, with the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, talking to Sir Victor Blank, chairman of Lloyds TSB, about how helpful it would be if Sir Victor could bring himself to end the uncertainty hanging over HBOS by buying it.”

If this is true, I’m amazed the takeover went ahead, given that Brown tends to be 180 degrees wrong about any financial deal – whether it be selling gold at the bottom of the market or selling British Energy shares before they skyrocketed.

The truth, I suspect, is that Brown somehow got wind from the Bank of England that the deal was happening – or maybe he needed to give formal assurance that the Competition Commission would turn a blind eye.