George Osborne has insisted a money-printing spree that is set to cost the taxpayer £100bn seemed “sensible at the time”. The former chancellor said quantitative easing, under which the Bank of England created £895bn of money to buy bonds, “was a necessary policy to get us out of the financial crash, and contributed to the fastest recovery of any G7 economy”. He added that it was “not my responsibility” to oversee the present status of the scheme, which is costing the Exchequer tens of billions of pounds because of an agreement with the Bank that losses should be borne by the taxpayer. The policy began in the financial crisis, holding down borrowing costs for the government, injecting liquidity into financial markets and, initially, making a profit for the Bank. In 2012 Osborne transferred profits from the scheme to the Treasury, lowering the Exchequer’s borrowing requirements – but agreeing, as part of this deal, to also bear the weight of any losses in future. However, higher interest rates and lower bond values mean the Bank is now losing money on the scheme. As a result, in the past year the Treasury has transferred £44bn to the Bank to cover the losses. The Office...