http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2192796/MP-fears-life-car-wheels-sabotaged.html
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9495739/Labour-MP-accuses-Government-of-hiding-scale-of-RBS-Libor-fines.html
MP fears for his life after car wheels are sabotaged in event which could have led to his death
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John Mann, Labour MP for Bassetlaw, was lucky to escape death or injury after the nuts on his car were removed
An outspoken Labour MP fears he may have been the victim of an attempt on his life after all the wheel nuts on his car were removed.
John Mann was lucky to escape death or injury after driving 200 miles from London to Nottingham before discovering that one of the wheels had almost fallen off.
It then emerged that every single wheel nut had been removed and the hub caps carefully replaced.
Police are now investigating whether the 12-year-old Citroen Picasso was deliberately sabotaged.
Mr Mann is an outspoken member of the Treasury Select Committee who has grabbed headlines in recent months with his robust questioning of senior bankers and Government ministers.
In May, Nottinghamshire Police began an investigation after Mr Mann’s wife, Jo White, a Labour councillor, was sent a dead bird in the post. The Bassetlaw MP said he was ‘concerned’ an attempt may have been made on his life following the car incident on Monday, August 7.
The 52-year-old said: ‘It may well have been the work of a thief who was interrupted. But I find it strange that the hub caps were put back on, meaning I couldn’t tell that anything was wrong.
‘I thought as I was driving up the A1 that I was having a bit of engine trouble. But it was only at the end of the journey that I saw one of the wheels had almost fallen off.
‘This could have killed me and possibly other people if the wheels had fallen off on the A1.
‘I have trod on plenty of people’s toes. It is entirely possible that the car was sabotaged, although I am hopeful that isn’t the explanation.’
Mr Mann said he had parked his car overnight outside his flat in Waterloo and then driven it to the car park within the Palace of Westminster in the morning.
After finishing work, he drove the car 200 miles back to his constituency – a journey which takes around three to four hours. Mr Mann said he noticed a strange rattling noise while travelling and then struggled to control the car when he reached the winding country lanes off the A1.
When he arrived at his constituency office car park, the right hand front wheel had virtually fallen off.
Mechanics examining the car discovered that all the wheel nuts – plus all four locking nuts – had been removed. Mr Mann said: ‘They told me the car had been sabotaged. The consequences of this madness do not bear thinking about.
‘Nobody could have spotted that the wheel nuts had been removed, which makes the callous nature of the crime even worse.’
He added that only registered garages have access to equipment to steal locking wheel nuts.
He admitted there was a ‘long list’ of people whom he had upset – including Islamic extremists, neo-Nazis, drug dealers and other criminals. ‘I am confident that the bankers are in the clear on this one,’ Mr Mann said.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9495739/Labour-MP-accuses-Government-of-hiding-scale-of-RBS-Libor-fines.html
7:06PM BST 23 Aug 2012
21 Comments
Royal Bank of Scotland faces an even bigger bill than Barclays to settle allegations that it attempted to manipulate Libor, according to a Labour member of the Treasury select committee.
MP John Mann said he had been told by “City insiders” that RBS would have to pay out even more than the £290m Barclays was handed in fines after settling the US and British investigations into Libor-rigging.
Mr Mann claimed that the Government was already aware of the scale of the fines likely to be imposed on RBS, which is 82pc owned by the state. “There is an obvious Government advantage in allowing Barclays to take the full flak and letting RBS sneak in later,” he said.
Mr Mann is demanding that George Osborne, the Chancellor, reveal if he has been briefed on any role RBS might have had in the manipulation of Libor; who he was briefed by, who he has informed and what actions he has taken since.
Mr Mann has been an outspoken critic of the banking industry and last month lambasted Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury committee, after he was not invited to join a parliamentary committee charged with looking into ways to reform the sector.
Stephen Hester, chief executive of RBS, warned last month that the lender was likely to be “in the spotlight” over Libor, but declined to give any guidance on how big any fine could be.
“RBS is one of the banks tied up in Libor. We’ll have our day in that particular spotlight,” said Mr Hester.
RBS is already facing a legal claim in Singapore for wrongful dismissal from one of its former traders, who claims the bank routinely manipulated its Libor submissions.
Tan Chi Min, who was sacked last November from his job as head of delta trading for RBS’s investment banking arm in Singapore, claims traders were able to submit false Libor rates on behalf of the bank, and that traders would sometimes request artificially high rates.
RBS is fighting the allegations and says that Mr Tan was dismissed from the bank for gross misconduct following an internal disciplinary process.
The bank has also confirmed it has dismissed several other employees in relation to the Libor manipulation claims.
As well as the British and American investigations, several other countries, including Canada and Japan, are looking into the potential rigging of Libor rates.
In recent weeks, US states have also joined in with their own separate investigations. Last month, Eric Schneiderman, New York State attorney general, subpoenaed several banks, including RBS, as part of a new investigation into Libor rigging.
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Snubbed MP John Mann Calls Bank Probe a 'Total Joke'
By SHANE CROUCHER: Subscribe to Shane's RSS feed
July 13, 2012 9:26 AM GMT
Labour MP John Mann attacked Barclays' Bob Diamond and Marcus Agius when they appeared in front of the Treasury committee (BBC)
A vocal Labour MP who sits on the Treasury select committee (TSC) that grilled top Barclays bankers Marcus Agius and Bob Diamond has slammed the new banking inquiry as a "total joke" after being left out of the panel while other TSC members are drafted in.
John Mann, Labour MP for Bassetlaw, blasted former Barclays chief executive Diamond as "grossly incompetent" for his role in the Libor fixing scandal, as well as "complicit and negligent", during the banker's TSC hearing.
He also labelled Barclays a "rotten, thieving bank".
"New finance committee is a total joke," tweeted Mann after the news broke of who will feature on the banking inquiry panel. Mann said he will start his own corresponding inquiry into banking.
The panel of MPs in parliament's banking inquiry has been agreed, according to reports, and will be led by Conservative Treasury committee chairman Andrew Tyrie.
Tyrie will be joined by Conservative Mark Garnier, Labour MPs Pat Mcfadden and Andy Love, and Liberal Democrat John Thurso, reported ITV News.
A formal announcement is yet to be made.
"Tyrie had already reached his conclusions before he whitewashed Libor scandal," Mann tweeted.
Andrea Leadsom, the Tory MP and TSC member, had been praised for her forensic questioning of Diamond and Barclays chairman Agius, but also does not feature on the banking inquiry panel.
"Leadsom and Mann both available but too outspoken on banking," claimed Mann.
Mann's outburst will cause Tyrie a headache as he leads the inquiry. Tyrie said he would not chair the panel unless there was cross-party support for his inquiry.
Labour wanted a public inquiry into banking, saying it must be an independent investigation into the culture and standards within the industry.
The government said it would be too costly and expensive to hold a judicial inquiry, as they want to put recommendations for reform into finance legislation due for debate in parliament at the start of 2013.
MPs voted for a parliamentary inquiry into banking and Labour has grudgingly agreed to take part.
A probe into banking was demanded in the wake of the Libor scandal, in which Barclays Bank traders were found to be attempting to manipulate a reference rate to their advantage.
Libor - the London Interbank Offered Rate - is calculated from submissions by a number of "panel banks" of what rates they think they can borrow from other banks.
These submissions are calculated internally by each bank for a number of loan maturity dates, such as three months and six months, by using the latest borrowing data they have from the previous day.
The British Banking Association (BBA), a professional body for banks and bankers, is responsible for working out the Libor rates for a range of currencies and maturity dates, totalling 150.
Libor rates are then used as a benchmark for a variety of trades and loans, such as interest rate swaps and corporate borrowing.
While Barclays was the first to settle its case with the Financial Services Authority (FSA), who investigated the scandal, and was handed the City of London's biggest ever fine of £59.5m, many other banks are facing similar accusations.
It is not thought that Barclays has the worst record for attempted Libor manipulation.
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http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/john-mann-andrew-tyrie-must-leave-his-committee-to-do-its-job-7942452.html
