Alistair Darling risks his political career for Scottish jobs
Alistair Darling may well be in the final throws of his time at the Treasury but he is literally risking his future political career by lobbying for HBOS jobs to be retained in Scotland. In amazing scenes we now have the Chancellor of the Exchequer lobbying for the retention of jobs in Scotland after the takeover of HBOS by Lloyds TSB. However, maybe it has something to do with the up and coming Scottish by-election?
While only a fool would fail to realise that Mr Darling has ties to his Scottish homeland we have never seen a situation where a senior Treasury minister is actively lobbying for the retention of jobs in Scotland so soon after Lloyds Bank stepped into bail out the whole UK banking system in affect. Surely a group which is risking well over £10 billion to complete the deal has the right to make its own mind up about employment and cost savings? Was it not the government which approached Lloyds to get involved in the deal?
Even though there are many scare stories in the newspapers it would seem highly unlikely that Lloyds Bank would move out of Scotland on mass. The Bank of Scotland (part of the HBOS Group) has always had a presence there and it is very much a lucrative hunting ground for the Bank.
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