MG Rover quartet slam call for probe

A QUARTET of executives accused of asset-stripping in relation to their purchase of collapsed carmaker MG Rover yesterday described moves towards a probe by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) as “mystifying”.

Business secretary Lord Mandelson has asked the SFO to decide whether a criminal investigation should be launched into the 2005 collapse of MG Rover, bought by the four executives for a token sum of £10 in 2000.

John Towers, Nick Stephenson, Peter Beale and John Edwards, dubbed the Phoenix Four, yesterday struck out in defence of their actions.

The Tories attacked the government’s decision to refer the case to the SFO as a ploy to avoid political embarrassment over its own role in the carmaker’s collapse.