Ex-Barclays boss Bob Diamond to face MPs after bank scandal

FORMER Barclays boss Bob Diamond was due to appear before MPs today after the rate-rigging scandal.

And a newly-released record of a phone call has sparked questions about whether the Bank of England’s deputy governor Paul Tucker encouraged improper behaviour.

Mr Tucker allegedly told Mr Diamond “senior Whitehall figures” had suggested to him that Barclays should not be reporting such high interbank lending rates.

The disclosure came hours after Mr Diamond announced his resignation as Barclays chief executive.

And Mr Diamond’s daughter Nell tweeted a lewd jibe at Chancellor George Osborne and Labour leader Ed Miliband, who welcomed her father’s departure.

Much attention at the Treasury Select Committee hearing today was to focus on a key conversation between the American bank chief and Mr Tucker about the Libor – the rate at which banks lend to each other.

In a note to his right-hand man Jerry del Missier and then chief executive John Varley on October 30, 2008, Mr Diamond said Mr Tucker had relayed concerns from “senior Whitehall figures” over the Libor.

He allegedly added the bank’s Libor rate did not “always” need to appear as high as it had recently.

Alistair Darling, who was chancellor from 2007 to 2010, said yesterday he did not believe anyone at the Treasury would have urged such improper intervention.

Meanwhile, an investigation into the Scottish banking sector has been under way for some time and will be extended, prosecutors confirmed.

The Crown Office in Scotland said the Serious and Organised Crime Division is leading the probe.