When the banking system teetered on the brink of collapse in 2008, Gordon Brown had an uncompromising message for the technocrats who police Europe’s competition rules: sanction multibillion-pound bailouts of our lenders, or we’ll ignore you and do it anyway. Britain could make demands as a powerful member of the European Union. The European Commission duly granted the state aid and, in return, stipulated far-reaching measures to counteract the bailouts, including the sales of businesses and a reduction in market share by Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group. Brexiteers have argued that this is the kind of scenario justifying the UK’s exit from the bloc. No longer constrained by EU state aid rules, the government would be able to act swiftly.

Source: The Times December 11, 2018 18:33 UTC