Government sells further £500m of Lloyds shares

The government has sold a further £500m of Lloyds Banking Group shares through a trading plan launched in December, taking the total amount of money recovered for the taxpayer from the bank to just under £8bn.

The Chancellor said the latest sale means the government's stake in the bank has reduced to 24%. It follows £7.4bn of sales completed last year, prior to which the government's stake was 40%. George Osborne added all shares sold through the trading plan had been sold above the average price the previous government paid for them, which was 73.6p. Osborne said: "I am delighted to announce that the trading plan I launched in December has raised a further £500m for the taxpayer so far. This is further progress in returning Lloyds Banking Group to private ownership, reducing our national d...