George Osborne, the UK Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, this morning added his voice to calls from academics and other politicians for supervisory powers governing liquidity in the financial sector to be transferred from the country's markets regulator to the Bank of England.

The shadow chancellor today said reform of the UK's financial oversight regime was critical in the wake of the run on mortgage lender Northern Rock, arguing that authorities should have new powers to take control of a bank when levels of insolvency or illiquidity are breached.