LABOUR has mocked George Osborne for issuing a "dodgy claim" that the sale of Royal Bank of Scotland back to the private sector will not see British taxpayers lose out.
Chris Leslie, his Labour Shadow, told MPs the Treasury could not pretend it was not making a loss on RBS because it was making a gain on completely separate assets.
The sale of the Edinburgh finance house is set to lose the taxpayer £7bn but when all the bank assets are resold to the private sector, the public purse is expected to be £14bn better off.
After decrying the fact the Chancellor was not in the Commons to deliver a statement on RBS, Mr Leslie told MPs: "Taxpayers who bailed out RBS during the global financial crisis want their money and will rightly be suspicious of any rush to sell.
"We come to this extremely dodgy claim that if you roll everything together, you stand on one leg, you squint a little bit and then you look at RBS losses, they are not really that bad. Isn't that a bit like saying I have sold my house and lost a fortune but don't worry I have got a great deal on the car?"
The Shadow Chancellor added: "Come off it. You can't pretend that you are not making a loss on RBS just because you are making a gain on completely separate assets elsewhere."
Harriet Baldwin, the Treasury Minister, stressed that RBS's problems and its slow recovery had been "one of the biggest drags" on the British economy.
"This Government was not responsible for the bail-out of RBS or the price paid then for shares bought by the taxpayer but we are responsible for getting the best deal now for the taxpayer and doing whatever we can to support the British economy."
She went on: "There is no doubt that starting to sell the Government's stake in RBS is the right thing to do on both counts. That is not just our judgement, it is the judgement of the Governor of the Bank of England."
Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative Chairman of the Commons Treasury Committee, urged people to understand that the loss from RBS had already happened.
Roger Mullin, the SNP's Treasury spokesman, said the Government was fond of talking about long-term economic plans but the sell-off "is not a strategy", noting: "What is completely missing from this statement is a strategy for the banking sector."
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