The parliamentary inquiry into banking descended into acrimony and farce today as an MP excluded from the panel branded it a whitewash and vowed to set up a rival investigation. John Mann, the Labour MP for Bassetlaw, claimed that he had been ignored, along with Andrea Leadsom, his Tory colleague on the Treasury Select Committee, for being too outspoken. His angry response threatened new problems for the already troubled inquiry into the rate-fixing scandal at Britain’s banks. MPs will give formal approval next week to the inquiry, which is expected to begin work during the summer and give its recommmendations to the Treasury by December 18. Andrew Tyrie, the independent-minded Tory who will chair the panel, was given the difficult task of having to exclude most members of the Treasury Select Committee, which he also chairs. The four MPs chosen f

Hans Kristian Rausing, the billionaire Tetra Pak heir, has been arrested on suspicion of her murder, police revealed today. The body of his wife, Eva Rausing, 48, was discovered in an upstairs bedroom of their multimillion-pound six-storey home in Belgravia, West London, after drugs were found in Mr Rausing’s car, Westminster Coroner’s Court heard. When police searched the house they found his wife’s body. She had been dead for a week or possibly longer. During the opening of an inquest into the death, Detective Inspector Sharon Marman said: “On Monday 9 July this year police had occasion to stop Mr Rausing driving a car in Wandsworth. The officer suspected that he had been driving under the influence of drink or drugs. “He was arrested and the car was searched. Within the car a small amount of drugs were found. He was taken back to Wandsworth police s