Darling slams ‘arrogant, stupid’ bankers in memoir

Former Royal Bank of Scotland boss Fred Goodwin behaved like a man "off to play a game of golf" as the bank he ran stood on the brink of bankruptcy in 2008, according to former chancellor Alistair Darling.

In extracts from his memoir leaked to the blog Labour Uncut, Darling goes so far as to say that Goodwin, who was later forced out of RBS when the government effectively nationalised it, "deserved to be a pariah" for initially refusing to give up his £700,000-a-year pension.

He describes the unprecedented scene when ministers met bankers one weekend in October 2008 as the British banking system stood on the brink of collapse. In contrast to Goodwin, Darling says the CEO of HBOS Andy Hornby was "looking like he was about to explode".

Darling writes of the frantic negotiations, when, as he revealed earlier this year, Britons were just two hours away from being unable to withdraw money from the banks: "My worry is that [the bankers] were so arrogant and stupid they might bring us all down."

He reveals his shock at the ingratitude of the bank chiefs for the huge government bailout that kept their companies solvent.

Darling's book, Back From The Brink: 1,000 Days At No 11, is published on September 7. The Sunday Times, which the Independent says was due to publish extracts from this weekend, will not be amused at having been scooped by a left-wing blog. ·