Alistair Darling and the Icelandic banks - how much did he know, and when?

The Mail reports that:

"Alistair Darling was alerted to the possibility of a meltdown of Icelandic banks 'weeks' before they collapsed, taking billions of pounds of British savers' cash invested in them.

A transcript of a private telephone conversation on October 7 between the Chancellor and an Icelandic government minister shows that Mr Darling had been 'very concerned' about the country's banks well before they failed.

In the transcript, published on the website of the Iceland Review magazine, Mr Darling accused Icelandic Trade Minister Bjorgvin Sigurdsson of misleading him 'a few months, weeks' earlier about the state of the Landsbanki, Kaupthing and Glitnir banks operating in the UK.

But damagingly for the Chancellor, the full record of the conversation shows that Mr Darling did not believe Mr Sigurdsson's reassurances at the time.

'We doubted what we were being told then and I am afraid we were right,' he said."

The Mail's report adds that:

"Vince Cable said the revelation was 'very disturbing' and called on the Chancellor to make a statement to the Commons tomorrow.

Mr Cable said: 'If it's true that the Government did know all about these problems and doubted Icelandic reassurances, this shifts the balance of responsibility. Mr Darling has to explain himself.'"

That is true, Alistair Darling must explain himself but what I want to know is did Alistair Darling inform Gordon Brown? If he didn't, why not and if he did why did Gordon Brown take no action then but invoke anti-terrorist legislation later?