Lib Dems blast Brown after news that Cadbury takeover was financed by taxpayers through RBS

6.23.10pm GMT Wed 20th Jan 2010

Letting taxpayers money finance the sale of Cadbury is 'plain wrong', Nick Clegg told Gordon Brown

Allowing a taxpayer-owned bank to lend money so Kraft could take over Cadbury's is 'plain wrong', LibDem leader Nick Clegg told Gordon Brown at Prime Ministers Questions today.

The Government came under a sustained assault from the Liberal Democrats after it became clear that the takeover by the American multinational relies heavily on loans from the Royal Bank of Scotland, which is now owned by the taxpayer after being bailed out.

Shadow Chancellor Vince Cable also revealed that hedge funds have made huge profits by speculating on the outcome of the deal, again as a result of taxpayers money.

Selly Oak's LibDem Parliamentary Candidate Cllr Dave Radcliffe said:

"Birmingham residents will be horrified. Each one of us who pays tax has in effect given a loan to allow this American multinational to buy up and dismantle Cadbury's.

"It was deeply regrettable that Cadbury's management capitulated to the Kraft bid. Kraft must not treat Cadbury's in the same way that they asset stripped Terry's in York.

"We need guarantees from Kraft that they will protect jobs, the products and brands, as well as the important heritage that Cadbury's has within Birmingham."

"But it is shocking to hear the role of RBS in all this.

"Once again we see Vince Cable and Nick Clegg asking the right questions. So often Labour ministers seem paralysed and ineffective - they could have told RBS not to give Kraft the huge loans.

"Instead, they did nothing. Birmingham residents will have their say on this fiasco at the general election."

At Prime Ministers Questions, LibDem leader Nick Clegg said: "There's a simple principle at stake: There are tens of thousands of British businesses crying out for that money to protect jobs. Instead they're lending it to a multinational with a record of cutting jobs.

"When British taxpayers bailed out the bankers they would never have believed that their money is now being used to put British people out of work. Isn't that plain wrong?"

LibDem Shadow Chancellor Vince Cable released a letter to Lord Mandelson asking him if he knew of RBS's plans to fund the deal.

Vince said: "It seems perverse that a bank still in receipt of large taxpayer support should be part funding a takeover of a British company which will likely put jobs at risk and hurt the UK economy.

"Cadbury is a national institution which provides thousands of jobs in the UK and there is a real danger its takeover by Kraft will lead to job losses.

"This takeover also raises broader questions about how hedge funds, out to make a quick buck, can destabilise even the most established companies. We have seen Cadbury shares rapidly bought up by hedge funds that are keen to accept the Kraft takeover regardless of whether it is in the long-term interests of the company.

"As the City minister Lord Myners himself notes, it is becoming too easy for good British companies to be taken over by foreign predators."

ENDS