Sale of 100% mortgage lender Northern Rock will not work.

This morning on the BBC Vince Cable, Liberal Democrat leader voices his concerns :”It is not going to work,” Mr Cable told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show.

“The amount of money being sunk in [Northern Rock] is absolutely staggering. There is no end to it.” Mr Cable repeated his call for the government to take temporary control of the bank’s affairs but said he was not arguing for nationalisation for “ideological reasons”.

100 % mortgage lender Northern Rock’s board wants to spend the next month working with both Virgin and Olivant to refine their bids.

The Sunday Times newspaper added, it is extremely unlikely that any outline deal would be reached by the Christmas deadline set by the government.

Gordon Brown said last week that “all options” were still being considered but that the government was trying to find a private buyer for the business.