Libor scandal: Osborne should apologise to Balls, says Tory Andrea Leadsom, a member of the Treasury Select Committee, said that evidence MPs heard yesterday "completely squashed" the suggestion that shadow chancellor had given the green light to the bank to manipulate its interbank lending rate at the height of the 2008 credit crisis, when Labour was in power and Gordon Brown still prime minister. Last week, Mr Osborne told the Spectator that "people around Gordon Brown" had questions to answer about the affair. His words were widely taken to refer to the former prime minister's close ally Mr Balls, and during angry exchanges in the Commons, the shadow chancellor demanded he withdraw the accusation or provide proof of Labour involvement in Libor rate-rigging. John Mann, a Labour member of the Committee, added that the Chancellor had made himself look "extremely foolish." But speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, defended Mr Osborne. He said: "What he said, if I remember rightly, was that there were questions to answer for members of the last government. I don't know what the answers to that question will be. The Chancellor said there were questions to answer and I see no reason for him to apologise for that. Asked about Mrs Leadsome's intervention, he said she was free to speak her mind as she saw fit. "Parliament is a lively place and it should be," Mr Hague added. It is a free Parliament and it should be. Mrs Leadsom has gained plaudits in recent weeks for her tough questioning of Mr Tucker and Bob Diamond, the former Barclays Chief Executive, who resigned following the revelation that Barclays had misreported its Libor rate.