THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Coalition tensions over bankers’ bonuses have been laid bare with the sacking of a senior Liberal Democrat who criticised a controversial deal announced by George Osborne.Lord Oakeshott, a close ally of Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, was last night removed from his post as the Lib Dem spokesman on Treasury issues.
His departure from the post came after he condemned the Coalition’s agreement with the banking industry as inadequate and accused Mr Osborne’s team of “arrogance and incompetence”.
Under the deal with the industry, the heads of the taxpayer-backed high-street banks will receive multi-million pound pay and bonus packages for last year.
The Chancellor said it was time to move from “retribution to recovery” and agreed to water down laws which would have identified multi-million pound bank traders.
However, under the terms of the “Project Merlin” deal, the country’s main high-street banks have agreed to increase lending and provide funding for community projects – in return for the Government not vetoing their bonus payments. >>> James Kirkup, and Robert Winnett | Wednesday, February 09, 2011
MAIL ONLINE: Clegg forced to sack Treasury spokesman after he pours scorn on 'weasel' Osborne's deal with banks: The coalition was in disarray over a lending and bonuses deal with Britain's biggest banks as Nick Clegg was forced to sack a member of his frontbench team for an extraordinary public attack on the Treasury. >>> James Chapman and Becky Barrow | Wednesday, February 09, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: RBS's Stephen Hester and Lloyds' Eric Daniels accept multi-million pound bonuses: The chief executives of state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group have accepted multi-million pound bonuses on the same day George Osborne unveiled details of a deal with UK banks that should cut pay-outs. >>> Harry Wilson and Andrew Trotman | Wednesday, February 09, 2011
