PENDLE MP Gordon Prentice has attacked the government's moves to relax the bankruptcy laws, warning it could be a licence for rogues to rip-off the honest.

Trade Secretary Peter Mandelson has announced that he intends to make it easier for bankrupt businessmen to start up again in a bid to encourage entrepreneurs.

But in the Commons Mr Prentice expressed concern about his plan to make it easier for individuals to bounced back from bankruptcy.

He asked: "How precisely will that work?

"What guarantees can you give that all sorts of unsavoury crooks and rogues who have ripped off honest people will not re-emerge from bankruptcy in a different guise?"

Mr Mandelson said: "There is a difference between rogue, dishonest director - who will be brought to book more quickly under the proposals being considered by the government - and those who have honestly set out with a business idea, but have failed through no fault of their own.

"All we are saying is that no stigma should attach to the failure of honest business people. On the contrary we want them to try again, to learn from their experience in setting up businesses, and, if they are so inclined to try and set up a new business.

"At the moment too many people are discouraged from going into business by fear of failure and the stigma that attaches to it."

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