Rachel Reeves considers overruling supreme court in £44bn car finance scandal
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is considering overruling the supreme court over a £44bn car loan commission scandal after lobbying by some of the UK’s biggest lenders, the Guardian can reveal.
Under Treasury contingency plans being discussed for the event that justices decide to uphold the entirety of last October’s shock appeal court ruling that customers may be entitled to billions in compensation, the government would retrospectively change the law to cut liabilities for lenders.
Officials have been discussing the feasibility of superseding the supreme court’s decision – which is due to be delivered on 1 August – with the Ministry of Justice and Department for Business and Trade, according to people familiar with the matter.
Such a move would represent a huge intervention by the Treasury, and comes months after Reeves controversially tried to intervene in the supreme court case back in January.
The City has been anxiously waiting to see whether justices fully uphold the appeal court decision that paying commission to brokers who arranged the motor loans, without disclosing the sum and terms of that commission to borrowers, was unlawful.
