Record fines levied on banks for the Libor rate-rigging scandal will help restore a unique Second World War tank-landing craft that survived D-Day, George Osborne has said.
The campaign to restore the hideous but awe-inspiring hulk LCT 7074 will benefit from an unconfirmed sum from the fine, the Chancellor announced on a visit to Portsmouth naval base.
The enormous vessel, just under 60 metres long and built to carry 10 tanks, is the last survivor of the UK fleet of 800 tank carriers, and one of the last of its kind in the world.
The ship sank ignominiously on her moorings seven years ago in Liverpool docks, after a previous restoration project foundered. However, in October the National Museum of the Royal Navy managed to raise her with the aid of a giant crane and flotation bags, and transport her to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. There a full restoration project has begun with the help of a Heritage Lottery grant of just under £1m.
Museum director Dominic Tweddle warmly welcomed the news: “As far as we can tell, LCT 7074 is the last of these vital workhorses known to have participated in D-Day, ferrying tanks, equipment and personnel across to France. Operation Neptune was the naval dimension of Operation Overlord, the largest amphibious operation in history, in which more than 7,000 ships and craft of all sizes landed more than 160,000 soldiers on the beaches of Normandy.”
The museum plans to display the restored craft at the D-Day Landing Museum in Portsmouth, where Tweddle predicted she will prove a magnet for visitors.
In 2013 the Royal Bank of Scotland was fined £390m for its part in Libor rate-rigging, which continued even after the bank was bailed out by the taxpayer and regulators had begun to investigate the rates.
