UK banks inquiry 'a total joke': MP

13 Jul 2012, 7:15 pm   -   Source: AAP

The British parliamentary inquiry into the banking industry and Libor scandal was branded a "total joke".

The British parliamentary inquiry into the banking industry and Libor scandal has been branded a "total joke" after two of the lower house's toughest inquisitors on financial issues were excluded from it.

Neither Labour MP John Mann nor Conservative MP Andrea Leadsom have been selected to sit on the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, despite their forthright questioning of bankers as members of the Treasury Select Committee.

The Commission will be chaired by Tory MP and Treasury Committee chairman Andrew Tyrie.

Its other MP members will be Tory Mark Garnier, Labour MPs Andy Love and Pat McFadden and Liberal Democrat John Thurso - who all sit on the Treasury Committee too.

Mann took to Twitter on Friday morning to describe the new committee as "a total joke".

He said the inquiry would be a "whitewash" and that he was going to set up his own.

"Both Andrea and I were available for the inquiry and because we are too outspoken we have been blocked," he said.

"This exposes the inquiry as a total whitewash with Andrew Tyrie reaching his conclusions in advance of the meetings.

"We need to get to the bottom of this scandal and I'm therefore setting up my own inquiry into this dreadful mess."

The Commission, which will study professional standards and the culture of the banking sector and recommend new legislation in the wake of the Libor rate-fixing scandal, will also feature members of the House of Lords.

A motion to set up the committee has been signed by Prime Minster David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne as well as Labour leader Ed Miliband and shadow chancellor Ed Balls.

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