Tories savage Darling after Poynter update
Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury lays into Alistair Darling in Parliament, lambasting 'inadequate response from a wholly inadequate chancellor'
Alistair Darling is ‘wholly inadequate’ as a chancellor, the Tories have
said.
Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Philip Hammond slammed the fact that
the police were informed of the confidentiality breach four days after the
chancellor was told, while the banks were apprised of the situation only six
days afterwards.
He also demanded to know the identity of the most senior HMRC figure aware
that the discs had been sent in this way to the National Audit Office.
The Tory MP also wanted to know why the clampdowns put in place on bulk
downloading of information, confirmed by Poynter, had not already been put in
place.
The chancellor would not rise to the bait but called on people to wait for
the full facts to emerge at the conclusion of Poynter’s review.
He confirmed that the police still have not tracked down the missing discs
but had no evidence to suggest that the information had fallen into the wrong
hands.
The chancellor added that PwC’s chairman expects to conclude his review in
the first half of 2008.