NRSAG
N Rock Shareholder Action Group
UK Shareholders Association
1 Bromley Lane
Chislehurst, BR7 6LH
United Kingdom
Website: https://www.nrsag.co.uk/
The Leader of the Labour Party
20 Rushworth Street
London, SE1 0SS
United Kingdom


Sent via email on 10th June 2024
Dear Sir Keir Starmer, 
You are about to be awarded a position of immense responsibility, and with it, the crucial opportunity to right a wrong. 
I am writing to you as a former Northern Rock (NR) shareholder and Secretary of the Northern Rock Shareholder Action Group (NRSAG). 
The NRSAG sent an appeal to the Treasury Select Committee (TSC) on 16 May 2024, requesting an investigation and adjudication of our case. Even though our appeal was submitted just before a General Election was announced, the TSC never intended to launch an investigation into the Northern Rock shareholder case for compensation. They completely disregarded our arguments and supporting documentation, concentrating instead on the predetermined valuation in 2008–2009 as well as the 2011 and 2013 Court of Appeal and Upper Tribunal rulings. 
Our committee wrote to every Member of Parliament to help review our case. Our group's members also wrote to their MPs. We have been encouraged by the responses we have received from MPs but disappointed at the current government's handling of our request.
The government, and in particular the Chair of the TSC did not responded directly to our appeal but we have seen copies of their responses to colleagues. An example can be found here. We received a short response from the Clerk at HM Treasury in response to our appeal. None of these responses adequately address our appeal.  The TSC made no reference to the £3 billion Goldman Sachs valuation conducted between September 2007 and the nationalisation date of February 2008, the fact the independent assessor was not independent because he based his judgment on unfair assumptions in the compensation order, there’s no mention of the fact that there was zero consultation with shareholders, and vitally no mention of the huge surplus made from Northern Rock. 
The issue of timing of our submission to the TSC was unexpected, but the excuses provided for not carrying out an “independent” review based on the facts TODAY are disgraceful in our opinion. There was ZERO substance in the TSC response. Our pleas and facts were totally ignored by them. It is possible that HM Treasury advised the TSC not to review the case, which would expose massive Tripartite failure. 
We responded to the arguments made around the 2008 Compensation Order to our group's members here. 
I am writing to appeal for your assistance in seeking fair compensation for the estimated 150,000+ small shareholders who had their shares confiscated when Northern Rock Plc was nationalised in 2008. These shareholders are from all over the United Kingdom but mainly in the Labour strongholds in the North East.
I strongly believe that it is wrong for the government to retain the entire surplus gained from the disposal of Northern Rock assets, to recover losses they made from the actual bad banks that got into trouble. Many other banks got into financial difficulty such as the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds, but they were treated completely differently to Northern Rock.
We made several appeals to the Conservative government, but our appeals lacked merit because facts were not fully known at the time we sent our appeals. However, the Treasury sold off all the bank's remaining assets in 2021 and realised a substantial surplus. All loans to the taxpayer have been paid in full at penal rates of interest, which means compensation will not be a charge on taxpayers or upon the general public as it will be payable out of the surplus funds, built over the past 16 years, because of asset disposals. The full facts were not known at the time of nationalisation, and assumptions have been proven to be wrong. It is now clear that the government has made billions of pounds in profits.
The Tory government refused to even consider the evidence and facts we presented, and a lot of the Party's Members of Parliament responded with generic emails to their constituents that didn't address any part of our appeal. However, the outcome from the Post Office scandal gives us hope that justice will be served to the hundreds of thousands of NR pensioners and savers who had their money confiscated from them in 2008.
The government has been shown to have made billions of pounds in profits from the asset sale process, which ended in 2021. This profit has accrued from taking shareholders assets into public ownership for NIL payment.
Our group's members are not wealthy, sophisticated investors, but ordinary working-class pensioners and savers, mostly from the North East, who lost their savings and nest eggs due to nationalisation. You can see shareholder profiles here. I recommend also reading the comments copied from our Facebook page, further down on the page, which show what kind of people our group represents.
If the future Government fails to review the Northern Rock situation and doesn't provide adequate compensation to the bank’s former shareholders, employees, pensioners, and savers then a similar drama to Mr Bates vs The Post Office about our case will become a reality. Our committee have initiated talks with a television production company already.
Also, we are currently seeking legal opinion based on the completion of the asset disposal process. These discussions only started a couple of weeks ago, but we are confident that the government has a case to answer. 
Although we acknowledge that share prices can fluctuate, we do not expect that shares can be taken away without providing fair and proper compensation, especially when in our case, it turns out that Northern Rock's assets i.e. the £100 billion mortgage book that belonged to its previous owners, was very strong.
I urge you to offer public support for our campaign and help us seek justice. 
We do not demand great fortunes in compensation, but a fair and just amount. The Government has earned a sizable surplus in the years after nationalisation, even though all Government assistance was completely reimbursed in those years.
I fully expect you to win the general election and become Prime Minister. I urge you to do the "right thing" and consider a full and independent public inquiry into this matter and finally, after 16 years, pay compensation to NR shareholders. We estimate that approximately 150,000 shareholders are still alive. This is a great opportunity for the Labour Party to right a wrong that the Tories have failed to do and send a message to a community of 150,000 people that your party believes in fairness and justice. 
Former NR shareholders equate to a large group of voters, especially from the North East. Our committee does not intend to influence anyone, but if the response is not positive then I will brief our members accordingly. This web page will remain private, but if I don't hear anything by 21 June 2024, then it will be made public. If I am not updated within this time frame, then I will assume that the Labour Party do not support our case. At this point, the committee's focus will turn to pursuing the legal route and also a TV Drama showing the injustice to Northern Rock shareholders. 
I have liaised with some high profile names regarding our case. I have discussed the situation with the Former Bank of England Governor, Lord Mervyn King of Lothbury and the Former Chief Executive of The Financial Services Authority, Sir Hector Sants, who have both confirmed that they will be willing to give evidence in front of the TSC hearing if they are called. We are also liaising with the Former Chairman of the NR Foundation Charity, Alastair Balls and have spoken to leading Economist, Professor Tim Congdon, who are in favour of compensation being paid to shareholders. 
The Conservative government called for a special focus on the North, but did not fulfil its promises. This is a great opportunity for the Labour Party to send a strong message to your heartlands. Amongst other reasons (such as Rishi Sunak's involvement with a Hedge Fund that profited from the financial crisis as highlighted further down this page), we strongly suspect that the Conservatives have ignored our request because our members are Labour supporters from the North East. This is a great opportunity for your Party to show the people of the region that you care about them.
I have not had much time to prepare this page, but it is important that the correspondence reaches you before the Labour 2024 manifesto is published. 
Thanking you in anticipation.
Yours sincerely,
Mo Majid

Our membership is mainly from the North East region who are lifelong supporters of the Labour Party.
I encourage you to watch the following video about Rishi Sunak, which may give you a better idea of ​​what we were up against and may explain why the Conservative government did not take up our case. This clip shows that in 2006, Rishi Sunak became a partner at the Hedge Fund, TCI Fund Management Limited. In 2007, Sunak was part of a small team of Hedge Fund bosses, who according to The Times Newspaper, "lit the touchpaper on the 2008 financial crisis." He shared in a £100 million fortune after TCI forced a deal that loaded the Royal Bank of Scotland with crippling debt, which led to a £45.5 billion government bailout, that unlike Northern Rock, wasn't recovered by the UK taxpayer in full. The crash that followed decimated the living standards of millions of Britons. Sunak, meanwhile became a multimillionaire in his mid-twenties. The full video is a must watch. 

Huge impact on around half a million people

Northern Rock was a community bank based in Newcastle with many local shareholders and employees who also chose to invest in their bank. Some lost their life savings. NR had 180,000 shareholders, the majority individual, and 16 years after the appropriation many of their family members have grown up into adulthood. Conservatively that means around half a million adults have a reason to be offended by the continuous refusal by government to compensate for the unfair appropriation of NR shares, in contrast to the favourable treatment of the effectively-bankrupt London banks. 

We estimate that around 150,000 former shareholders are still alive. Our Facebook following shows the Top-10 cities our group members reside in. If we forecast in a similar fashion to the way election polls are conducted, the graph indicates there could be around 14,000 former shareholders from the Newcastle area, around 6,000 from Sunderland, around 5,250 from London, around 3,450 from Cramlington, around 2,700 from Gateshead, around 3,600 from Cramlington, around 2,400 from South Shields, around 2,250 from Whittle Bay, etc. The illustration also shows that former shareholders are mostly elderly.
Background TSC Appeal

Social Media Comments

Northern Rock Foundation

Independent charity, the Northern Rock Foundation was formed in 1997 when Northern Rock was floated on the stock exchange. It aimed to tackle disadvantage and improve quality of life in the North East and Cumbria. Between 1998 and 2016 the Foundation awarded £235.8 million in 4,417 grants. The charity had to close down in 2016 due to lack of funding as a direct result of nationalisation severely affecting the charity sector in the region. Read more on Wikipedia.

Government figures show surplus

It has been proven that there was embedded value in the assets belonging to Northern Rock shareholders. Dubious costs were later added to reduce the overall profit, but a huge surplus is obvious and recognised by HM Treasury, and other agencies. 

Rothschild Report (2015)

Shows surplus of £9.6 billion from UK Asset Resolution, which includes Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley. 

OBR Report (2015)

The report showed a cash surplus of £10.6 billion from the holdings in Bradford & Bingley and Northern Rock Asset Management plc.

OBR Report (2021)

The OBR showed a cash surplus of £16.9 billion from the holdings in Bradford & Bingley and Northern Rock Asset Management plc in a report published in 2021. 

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Learn more about our case

We have gathered data since the global financial crisis began in 2007. Please browse our website to learn more about the evidence and facts relating to Northern Rock. 
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