Lloyds shareholders to sue King and Darling

27th Nov 2009 16:47

A campaign group representing 2m Lloyds Banking Group shareholders is preparing to take the Bank of England governor Mervyn King and Chancellor Alistair Darling to court over the secret £61bn bailout of HBOS and RBS.Lloyds Action Now (LAN), which has appointed the TV presenter Alice Beer as a spokesperson, says they acted 'beyond their powers' in keeping the funding secret at a time when Lloyds shareholders were asked to vote in favour of the take over of HBOS.News of the secret bailout came on Tuesday as policymakers finally owned up to the huge loans at a parliamentary hearing, having kept the move secret for fear of sparking further panic in equity markets.LAN said it is to make an application for Judicial Review to the High Court.'Had the true state of HBOS been known to Lloyds shareholders there is no way they would have voted for the takeover,' said Alice Beer, the former BBC Watchdog presenter who is campaigning on behalf of shareholders.'Information that the law clearly says they should have was deliberately withheld from them to ensure the merger went through,' she added.Shares in Lloyds fell sharply soon after the HBOS acquisition, when the problems at the Scottish bank became apparent.