Rupa Huq – Labour’s choice to be next MP for Ealing Central and Acton – has issued a stinging condemnation to current MP, Angie Bray, for her failure support urgent moves to rein in bank bonuses.

The Labour candidate condemned her Conservative opponent for not supporting a Labour motion debated in the House of Commons on Wednesday following reports that RBS may ask the Government to approve a rise in the EU’s cap on bank bonuses

Rupa Huq, Labour candidate for Ealing Central and Acton, said:

“At a time when families in Ealing and Acton are facing a cost-of-living crisis and bank lending to business is falling, it cannot be right for George Osborne to approve a doubling of the bank bonus cap.

“It shouldn’t have taken the EU to act to rein in excessive bonuses, but there has been no action from the Chancellor here in Britain.

“Even worse, David Cameron has today refused to rule out approving bonuses of up to 200 per cent at RBS. It looks like he and George Osborne would approve such a request at a time when ordinary families face a cost-of-living crisis and bank lending to businesses is falling.

“Many executives were paid bonuses worth more than 100 per cent of their salary last year.

“We urgently need change and reform of our banks, not the business as usual approach of David Cameron and George Osborne.”

She added: “As the majority shareholder in RBS, I believe the government should reject any request from RBS to increase the cap. That’s why Labour MPs will put this to a vote in the House of Commons today as part of our opposition day debate on the Government’s wider failures on banking.

“Tory MP Angie Bray should put the people she’s elected to represent first -; not vested interests.

“The case for repeating Labour’s tax on bank bonuses, to fund a compulsory jobs programme for young people, is getting stronger by the day.”

 

NOTES

1.   FT story is available here: http://m.ft.com/cms/s/0/e086c720-7d26-11e3-a579-00144feabdc0.html
2.   The text of Labour’s Opposition Day Debate motion is as follows:

“That this House believes that Government reforms have failed to deliver a competitive banking system which serves the interests of consumers or the needs of businesses and the British economy; is concerned that customers have limited choice and low levels of trust and confidence in the banking market; is disappointed that recent legislation has fallen short of the recommendations of the Independent Commission on Banking which called for action to diversify the sector and ensure that major new banking service providers are created; believes that banker remuneration remains unacceptably high and regrets the fact that it has taken the EU to act to rein in excessive bonuses in Britain in the absence of domestic action but believes the government as a majority shareholder in RBS should not approve any request to increase the cap; and calls on Ministers to prevent a return to business-as-usual in the banking sector which continues to require real reform and competition so that the UK can earn its way out of the cost-of-living crisis.”

http://press.labour.org.uk/post/73402338016/labour-calls-on-osborne-to-reject-any-request-by-rbs-to