The UK government’s efforts to nationalise Northern Rock have come under further fire, despite passing a House of Commons vote late last night, after opposition parties slammed plans not to include the stricken lender’s Granite securitisation vehicle under government ownership.

Vince Cable, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrat Party, wrote in a letter to UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling today: “Members on all sides took in the significance of the fact that you had excluded from the nationalisation Granite, which accounts for 40% of Northern Rock’s assets, including the best quality mortgages.