Labour are trying to make the Government look bad over RBS boss Stephen Hesters' bonus worth nearly £1 million. They say that David Cameron should step in and take away the bonus.
Well, lets look at what Labour did in government:
- Labour refused to take away the bonus of Hesters predecessor, Sir Fred Goodwin.
- Labour hired Stephen Hester and wrote his employment contract.
- They gave him a relatively high salary and bonus scheme because he gave up an even bigger one with his previous employer when he took the job.
- Labour claim that the government can take away his bonus, but it is written into his employment contract - which they wrote.
- Labour seem to think that the owners of a company can take away a bonus. They can't - that is why there is an employment contract in the first place, to protect the employees rights.
- Labour claim that the government should restore the banker bonus tax, even though Alistair Darling said that it would only work for one year when he first introduced it.
- Labour say nothing about the banking levy, which George Osborne introduced and which earns more for the tax payer than the bankers bonus tax did.
- The bonus is paid in shares, so the value is linked to how good a job he does.
- Much of the bonus will be taken away in taxes anyway.
The PM can't do anything about individual banker bonuses. Don't believe it? It was not this government who said that, it was Alistair Darling talking about Gordon Brown!
Ed Miliband accused the prime minister of a "disgraceful failure of leadership" over the issue.
Stephen Hester's bonus is only 60% of the full amount to which he is entitled. He has made it clear that he would leave the job if he did not receive the money to which he is entitled to. Any replacement capable of running RBS would insist on a similar deal, so denying Hester his money will just throw the bank into crisis and make it more likely to lose money. It could very well lose billions for the sake of not paying a million or so. Given that we own 82% of the bank (thanks to Labour's failed banking regulation and subsequence bailout) the people who would lose out would be us tax payers.
Ed Miliband would throw away billions of our money for the sake of a good headline. How is that for leadership? Is it any wonder that more Labour supporters think David Cameron would make a better PM than Ed Miliband?
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