The decision to allow the proposed merger of HBOS and Lloyds TSB was not influenced by statements made by the British Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer apparently in favour of the plan, a tribunal heard today.

TEN years after a seven-year-old boy was killed in Italy - and his British-born parents touched the nation by donating his organs - one of the organ recipients travelled to the child’s California hometown to help honour him.