Britain's under-fire finance minister Alistair Darling on Tuesday defended his government's decision to support troubled bank Northern Rock, arguing it was in the best interests of the economy.
Darling has faced severe criticism from some opposition politicians for using taxpayers money to bail out Northern Rock, which has struggled to borrow money from its peers because of the credit crunch. On Monday, Northern Rock picked a take-over consortium led by tycoon Richard Branson's Virgin Group as its preferred long-term saviour.
Addressing Tuesday the annual conference of Britain's biggest employers' association, the CBI, Chancellor of the Exchequer Darling said: "Let me now tackle those who now say that we should not have provided financial support for Northern Rock.
"We could have let it go down but I believe the consequences for other financial institutions, in which confidence would have inevitably been shaken, and for Britain would have been extremely damaging." As well as lending Northern Rock some 25 billion pounds (35 billion euros, 52 billion dollars) the Labour government has guaranteed all savings held at the bank.
"I believe it was the right thing to intervene; that it was right to put in place guarantee arrangements to savers and it is right to see it through," Darling said.
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