Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
LABOUR: STOP RBS SELL-OFF
‘We’ll keep bailed-out bank & boost small firms’
LABOUR would block the sale of bailed-out RBS in a radical overhaul of the banking industry.
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell today pledges to keep the bank – turning a profit for the first time in a decade – in public hands.
He also wants to stop RBS closing branches. It shut 216 last year, leaving just 54 in England and Wales.
As part of Labour’s plans for the financial sector, Mr McDonnell pledges to make it easier for small firms to borrow money.
Extra cash for infrastructure and manufacturing are also on the agenda.
Making it easier for small firms to borrow cash, and more money for public facilities and manufacturing are also part of Labour’s plan, which is being unveiled today. Scandal-hit RBS is now 62 per cent public owned. It was saved with a £46billion bail-out from taxpayers in 2008, but the Treasury plans to sell the entire public stake by 2024.
Mr McDonnell said: “Finance is the central nervous system of the economy. It directs investment, deciding which businesses and projects get off the ground and which fail. For too long, this vital part of our economy has been solely in the hands of the big banks and the speculators.”
He said the financial crisis and lack of investment in small business, manufacturing and infrastructure showed economic policies had failed.
He said: “When the financial crisis struck, the banks were bailed out but the rest of us were sold out.
“It’s time to secure the investment we all made and use it to benefit the many not the few.”
Labour plans to start a £250billion National Investment Bank and regional development banks for firms, infrastructure and industries.
Mr McDonnell also pledged green industries in towns where traditional industries have disappeared.
RBS has already cost the public £3billion of the initial bail-out and Labour would change its management and focus on productive investments.