MG Rover collapse report out soon

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The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said it will publish the independent inspectors' report, which took four years and cost £16 million, on September 11.

Last month Business Secretary Lord Mandelson was accused of delaying the publication of the report, which many expect to be embarrassing for the Government, when he asked the SFO to look at whether there was a criminal case to answer.

The Birmingham-based car maker collapsed in April 2005 with the loss of more than 6,000 jobs after a group of businessmen known as the Phoenix Four bought the car maker from BMW for £10 in May 2000.

The four executives in charge - John Towers, Nick Stephenson, Peter Beale and John Edwards - have always denied any wrongdoing. But they came in for much criticism when it was revealed they had taken out an estimated £40 million in pay and pensions in the five years they controlled the firm.

A spokesman for the four former directors said they were "flabbergasted" when Lord Mandelson referred the matter to the SFO.

He said there had been "absolutely no basis for a criminal investigation as the question of fraud had never been raised at any point".

"The decision to refer the matter to the SFO was the latest in a long line of bizarre and wholly unnecessary twists in the MG Rover story," he said.

"The directors have very little faith in a process that has seen £16 million of taxpayers' money wasted on an inquiry that was originally defined, funded and then guided by the very Government department that was heavily implicated in the collapse of MG Rover. At every turn the Government has tried to avoid accounting for its own role in this affair - especially how the £100 million Government bridging loan that could have saved the company was withdrawn at the last minute in 2005.

"There have been more than 30 Freedom of Information requests made to the Government regarding their part in all of this and they have systematically turned every one down. Overall, this has been a very shabby and deeply unsatisfactory process."