Northern Rock should be nationalised

6.13.51pm UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 30th Nov 2007

Liberal Democrats call for Northern Rock to be nationalised.

The amount of taxpayers money lent to bail out Northern Rock may have reached £29billion according to Bank of England data. The Liberal Democrats are calling for Northern Rock to be taken into public ownership temporarily, in order to safeguard taxpayers money.

Vince Cable, Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats and Shadow Chancellor, said "We are in desperate territory here. The amount of money being loaned weekly is increasing rather than decreasing. With the total now close to £30 billion, taxpayers cannot be expected to continue to dole out vast sums of money."

"Much of it appears to be unsecured and may end up going down the plughole. While no private bidder has been able to guarantee the return of taxpayers' money with interest in a set timeframe, the Government must seriously look at temporary nationalisation."