Bob Diamond denies Bank of England told him to 'fix' interest rates at the height of the financial crisis The former head of Barclays today denied that the Bank of England told him to "fix" interest rates at the height of the financial crisis. Giving much anticipated evidence to Parliament Bob Diamond said he "didn't believe" he had "received an instruction" from Deputy Governor Paul Tucker about the fixing of interest rates. However he said that his conversation with Mr Tucker had led him to fear that the Government might attempt to nationalise the bank just days before it was able to secure funding from the Middle East that would allow it to survive as an independent bank. Mr Diamond said was deeply concerned that "Whitehall officials" might step in and take drastic action which could scupper the deal because they thought that Barclays Libor rates were too high to be sustainable. He said it was for that reason that he had written a memo to the chief executive of the bank John Varley describing his conversation with the Mr Tucker about the fixing of interest rates. He added he did not know for certain who the Whitehall officials, referred to in his memo, were and added it would be "wrong to speculate" about who they might have been. He said he "did not think" they were ministers and did not think anyone in Government had suggested that Barclays should be fix rates. My reaction (of the call with Mr Tucker) was an appreciation of that he was doing his job. He said when he read the emails from Barclays traders about the fixing of the Libor rates he felt "physically ill" and did not represent "that the Barclays that I know and that I love." Mr Diamond said he only learnt that "low balling" - the fixing of the Libor rate - was going on at the bank this month, some four or five days before the practice was publicly disclosed. He said he had no knowledge that anything untoward was taking place in October 2008, insisting he was never made aware of the issues. "It wasn't brought to that level and a part of that was that there were ongoing meetings at a level, below that," he told the hearing. There was a feeling that it had been resolved. Asked if criminal punishment for bank chiefs would act as a deterrent, Mr Diamond said: "That is an issue for the regulator." Pressed further, he said: "People who are doing things they are not supposed to do should be dealt with harshly. He added: "We've been dealing harshly with our people." I'm sorry. I'm disappointed and I'm so angry. There's no excuse. He added: "This was wrong. I'm not happy about it.