Darling ‘blocked Barclays bid to take over failing Lehman’

Chancellor Alistair Darling personally blocked a plan to save Lehman Brothers by refusing to allow Barclays Bank to take over the stricken Wall Street giant, a new book claims.

Too Big to Fail: Inside the Battle to Save Wall Street by New York Times reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin claims the Barclays deal was aborted once Darling declined to give it his blessing.

Then US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told bankers that Darling had "grin-fucked" America, the book alleges.

Barclays would have needed Darling to waive legislation before it could secure the Lehman deal. According to Sorkin, the chancellor told Paulson he did not want to "import our cancer".

The book is published in the UK today. The Treasury has already moved to downplay it.

It disputes that Darling used the words attributed to him by the reporter.