CHANCELLOR Alistair Darling will today set out plans to provide Government backing for a private sector buyout of the stricken North-East bank Northern Rock.
Under the proposals drawn up by investment bankers Goldman Sachs, the £24bn given to the bank in emergency loans by the Bank of England would be converted into bonds to be sold to international investors.
Initial details will be set out in a 7am statement to the Stock Exchange, followed in the afternoon with a statement by Mr Darling to MPs in the House of Commons.
The scheme - understood to have been approved by Prime Minister Gordon Brown - would enable the Government to avoid the political embarrassment of having to take over the bank itself.
But with the bonds to be underwritten by the Government rather than a private sector insurer, the opposition parties said that effectively the bank was being nationalised by the back door.
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