Member

Agreeing amendment 16 would mean that nationalisation could be considered to be in the public interest only if the National Audit Office determined that it would deliver value for money for the British taxpayer. Our amendment would introduce an explicit taxpayer protection test to ensure that Ministers could not proceed unless the intervention was economically justified, not just politically convenient. British taxpayers should not be asked to sign off on a blank cheque. We cannot have nationalisation in search of rationale.