James Caan says sell Lloyds stake

Speaking on ‘5 Live Breakfast’ with Nicky Campbell and Shelagh Fogarty, Dragon Den's star James Caan said the government should sell its stakes in the banks to reduce the deficit.

“The country is in the grip of despair over impending cuts to all sorts of social services regardless of who wins the election,” said James Caan this morning.

“The three parties are agonising over the figures but the consensus is that about £55 billion will have to be cut from public spending in order to service the deficit.

“Labour, the Conservatives and the Lib Dems are not being forthcoming with the detail of where the money will be raised. They have a problem and we have the solution.

“The Labour Government took a brave step in investing billions to support the banking system but the point is that they invested the Nation’s money at the lowest point of the cycle.

“They bought Lloyds shares at 30 pence which are today worth 68 pence. We should use that money to reduce the deficit and not cut vital social services,” said Mr Caan, star of BBC TV’s ‘Dragons’ Den’.

Patrick Lee, an analyst for Societe Generale Investment Bank, forecast today that he expected the share price of Lloyds Banking Group to rise to £1.15 which would make the Government’s stake worth £31 billion. Rohit Chadha, analyst for Barclays Shared Services, forecast a share price of 70 pence for the RBS Group taking the value of Government’s investment to £62.3 billion.

“As a businessman if I’m going through an economically challenging time I would use the proceeds of any investment I had to reduce my debts. No one is saying that the £55 billion has to be raised immediately. The parties should use this investment and not panic people with cutting services,” said Mr Caan.

“Labour should also say that they will take the £6 billion they hope to raise from the increase in National Insurance out of this money and not tax jobs.”

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