Political pressure builds on Diamond
BOB Diamond faces a battle to save his career after finding himself at the centre of a political storm ahead of his appearance at the Treasury select committee on Wednesday.
“Parliament and the public need to know what went wrong and whether the perpetrators have been rooted out,” said Conservative MP Andrew Tyrie, who heads the committee. “We also need to be given confidence that this has been put right.”
Yesterday Rachel Reeves, Labour’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, hinted that her party may call for Diamond to quit.
“Bob Diamond has a final opportunity when he comes to the Treasury select committee next week to explain himself and explain what was going on at his bank,” she told the BBC’s Sunday Politics. “At the moment I’m far from convinced he should still be in his job at the end of next week.”
Meanwhile the scandal looks set to hit the wider banking industry following calls for a public inquiry into the scandal.
Justice secretary Ken Clarke said that if any of the ongoing investigations revealed suspected criminal offences “they should be brought to trial”.
“We are very bad at prosecuting financial crime in this country,” he added.
On Saturday Prime Minister David Cameron attempted to head off a full-blown inquiry by ordering an independent review of interbank lending rates.