Should taxpayers bail out the banks?
CHANCELLOR Alistair Darling faced MPs’ wrath yesterday after unveiling yet another taxpayer-funded bail-out for the ailing Royal Bank of Scotland.
Taxpayers have now been saddled with a further £325billion debt after the Government agreed a deal to insure RBS’s worst “toxic” assets.
Under the agreement outlined to an astonished Commons, the Government will buy up to another £19billion of new RBS shares – raising the taxpayer’s stake in the bank to 84 per cent.
RBS will pay a 2 per cent fee – some £6.5 billion – for the taxpayer-backed insurance scheme but it will only be liable for the first £19.5billion of the debt.
The rest of the massive financial burden will be borne by taxpayers.
Shadow Chancellor George Osborne, in a bruising attack on the Chancellor, likened the deal to “insuring a car after the crash”.
* Should TAXPAYERS bail out the banks?
* Is it FAIR that we are being saddled with a £325billion debt after the Government agreed to insure RBS's worst "toxic" assets?
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