Inquiry slug-fest drags on

As we wait for Bob Diamond’s evidence to the Treasury select committee, a few thoughts on who else might be interesting to hear from, especially on the narrow point of Libor rates. Obviously Paul Tucker at the Bank of England needs to be given a slot soon so give his version of events. But the inquiry – this one, under Andrew Tyrie, and any future one, possibly not under Andrew Tyrie – might like to hear from Baroness Vadera.

Shriti Vadeera was Gordon Brown‘s trusted adviser and point of contact for the City through the height of the crunch. At one point she even had a desk in No. 10 though she was technically a minister in both the Cabinet Office and business department. She had enemies throughout Whitehall, wounded by her sharpness and certainty.

The Treasury had a particular resistance to her charms. Her comments to newspapers yesterday through a spokesman that she “had no recollection” of any inappropriate conversations with the Bank of England about Libor rates appeared to be mocked by Lord Myners, former Treasury minister, on Radio 4’s Today programme this morning.

Others who would’ve been across and worried by Libor rates at this time include Sir John Kingman now off in the private sector, then at the Treasury. And then, up til 2008, there was Lord (James) Sassoon like Shriti Vadera, a veteran of Warburgs, who came into government. In Sassoon’s case, he crossed over to help the Tories in 2008. Shriti Vadera stayed loyal to Gordon Brown to the end of his time in office but has not been much in contact since – perhaps, like others, she found the former prime minister’s inability to adapt to the fact that they didn’t work for him any more a little taxing.

Dogged pursuit

I’m afraid I still don’t know what Ed Miliband‘s “cunning plan” is for when he loses the vote tomorrow on what form the inquiry should take. What I can pass on is that Ed Miliband still has the bit between his teeth on this one, is convinced that the City needs a very public probing to make sure it doesn’t fall back into ways that he feels have harmed the country.

David Cameron may fear a judge-led inquiry would harm the financial sector and therefore the economy. He may well have developed a phobia of judge-led inquiries after the many hours he spent preparing for his own session at Lord Leveson’s inquiry and watching countless headlines dragging his own name into the orbit of the phone hacking story. But Ed Miliband thinks something fundamental needs to change in the way the City operates, and it won’t change without what David Cameron, in a different context, has called the disinfectant powers of transparency.

And if that makes both sides sound too elevated … sure, it’s true, they both see political advantage here too. George Osborne is determined to turn guns on Labour over its failure to regulate the City. He is making it very personal – especially against Ed Balls – and is looking pretty Gordon Brown-like right now in his dogged pursuit of his prey.

Ed Miliband thinks the Libor scandal plays into his producer/predator agenda and what many of his own supporters see as his still unfulfilled ambitions to recast capitalism. Ed M will be encouraged by the FT leader today that decides Vickers didn’t go far enough on banking reform and we need a full separation between the casino end of the operation and high street banking.

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