General Election 2015: Tories to offer cheap Lloyds shares to the public if they win election

The share offer, worth £4bn, will be put forward within a year of the election

(Getty)

The Conservatives are planning to sell shares in Lloyds bank to small investors at below market rates, if they win they General Election.

In what is billed as a 1980s style privatisation, up to £4bn worth of shares would be sold cheaply, as part of a greater £9bn sale, within a year of the election.

The move comes just days after David Cameron announced an expansion of right-to-buy, another '80s policy.

A publicity drive is planned to drum up interest in the sale, similar to the “Tell Sid” campaign that surrounded the sell-off of British Gas in 1986.

Small investors, who will be offered the cut-price shares, will be rewarded if they keep their holdings for at least a year with a loyalty bonus.

This will comprise one additional free share for every 10 they already own.

George Osborne said the offer would encourage a “culture of long-term share ownership” and give people a “stake in our economy”.

“The share offer will raise billions of pounds, helping taxpayers to get back the money that the last Labour government put in, and reducing the national debt,” he wrote in the Telegraph.

Investors will be able to buy from £250 to £10,000 worth of shares, to qualify for the “retail offer” proposed by the Tories.

Current Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, criticised the proposal, however.

"This idea is one that we have looked at several times in Government ... and decided against, because it's not been clear that we'd be able, through this method, to get the money back for the taxpayer," he said on BBC Radio 5 Live.

"The point I'm making about this Tory plan is, I'm not sure anyone can have any certainty it will actually happen ... unless the Conservatives are saying that they'd sell these shares even if they didn't get the taxpayers' money back, and I think that would be a highly irresponsible thing to do," he added.

In 2008 Lloyds, which was then known as Lloyds TSB, received £20bn of taxpayers’ money to avert its financial collapse.

Since that time £9bn of shares have been sold of the open market, as the Government has attempted to fully privatise the once stricken bank.

---

The Independent has got together with May2015.com to produce a poll of polls that produces the most up-to-date data in as close to real time as is possible.

Click the buttons below to explore how the main parties' fortunes have changed:

All data, polls and graphics are courtesy of May2015.com. Click through for daily analysis, in-depth features and all the data you need. (All historical data used is provided by UK Polling Report)