Prime Minister and Chancellor ‘stayed submerged’ on bankers’ bonuses

The irrepressible Lord Oakeshott is making mischief again: he’s using Sir Mervyn King’s comments about Goldman Sachs bonuses today to attack David Cameron and George Osborne. He’s just told Coffee House the following:

‘The Governor speaks for all on Goldman’s greed. He shows leadership where the Prime Minister and Chancellor stayed submerged. Starbucks are an also ran in the tax avoidance stakes compared to world champions like Goldmans.’

Then he took another covert shot at the Treasury by referring – not by name – to the appointment of former Goldman employee Mark Carney as the next Bank of England Governor:

‘Big banks like Goldman can’t have it both ways. If they want the kudos of advising governments and collecting fat fees like their £4.5 million from the Treasury on Northern Rock, then they can’t spit in taxpayers’ faces. If they want their staff to glide into Governorships of Central Banks or Secretaryships of the US Treasury, it’s high time they behaved like good citizens, not barrow boys.