The LibDems have launched a petition calling on the Government to come clean on how much money has been lent to Northern Rock.

Acting leader Vince Cable says the Government needs to answer some key questions including whether the loan will be paid back in full with interest in this Parliament.

Cable says the Government needs to inform Parliament what the total figure borrowed is and confirm whether reports it has reached £24bn are correct or if they underestimate the loan.

Cable also want answers regarding reports chief executive Adam Applegarth will get a £2m pension pot and generous bonuses al underwritten by the taxpayer.

Cable says: “I do not know whether this Chancellor has been singing in the bath but he has much in common with the Conservative ex-Chancellor, Norman Lamont, who also presided over a financial disaster on Black Monday.??”When Tony Blair was Prime Minister he was widely and rightly criticised for squandering £800 million on the Millennium Dome. This Prime Minister and this Chancellor have invested the equivalent of 30 Millennium Domes in this bank and we don’t even have a few pop concerts to show for it.

“The Chancellor has taken to calling my comments “unwise”. I wonder what words posterity will use to describe a Chancellor and a Prime Minister who entrusted billions in taxpayers’ money that was only partly secured and was managed by discredited executives, feathering their own nest.”