Alistair Darling announced it, Gordon Brown floored the Tories with it and a whole host of financial experts gave a plethora of advice on it. But who is the architect of the £500 billion bailout for the British banking system?

It appears destined to go down in history as the Brown Plan. Or should it be the Brown-Darling Plan? It depends on whom you talk to. Despite the obvious benefits of claiming sole responsiblity for the biggest deal in British financial history, officials questioned by The Times yesterday seemed curiously reluctant to accept plaudits.

“What a peculiar thing to ask,” one government officer said. Another refused to comment and a third suppressed a chuckle. One joked: “If it works then it was probably someone else’s idea.”

Some of the names attached to the part-nationalisation of Britain’s banks are familiar to the public. Others are rarely heard outside the corridors of Westminster.

Certainly the chief executives of the country’s biggest banks were close to the negotiations, including the so-called Gang of Three: Sir Fred Goodwin, of the Royal Bank of Scotland; John Varley, of Barclays; and Eric Daniels, of Lloyds TSB. Representatives from the other high street banks were consulted regularly, in particular the heads of Standard Chartered, HSBC and Abbey.

Also around the table were Baroness Vadera, a business minister and former adviser to the Prime Minister, and Paul Myners, the new City Minister and a recent chairman of Marks & Spencer. Add to this Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, and Lord Turner of Ecchinswell, chairman of the Financial Services Authority.

The list goes on: Nick Macpherson, Tom Scholar and John Kingman, the Treasury’s three most senior civil servants were present with their advisers.

Mr Macpherson, 49, has been part of Mr Brown’s inner circle for eight years. The Old Etonian and former accountant worked for Kenneth Clarke when he was Chancellor. He made the transition to a Labour government in 1997 and has played a key role in Mr Brown’s economic reforms.

Tom Scholar, 39, is a Brown protegé who served as his private secretary in the early years of the first Labour Government. He was recalled from a plum post as Britain’s representative at the IMF and World Bank in Washington to become Mr Brown’s chief of staff last year but failed to cope with the rough and tumble of life at No 10 and returned to his comfort zone at thethe Treasury within six months. Widely seen as the top swot in the class with an enviable inside track to the Prime Minister, Mr Scholar heads the International and Finance Directorate.

John Kingman, 38, is the managing director of public services and growth at the Treasury.

Stephen Pickford, 58, who also works at the Treasury, has also been a key player in the negotiations and accompanied Mr Darling to Luxembourg for this week’s talks with EU finance ministers. A charming, laid-back but diligent civil servant, Mr Pickford has been a reassuring figure at the heart of Britain’s international economic policy for a decade, pushing Mr Brown’s plans with Washington and foreign governnments.

Mr Darling has also had guidance from the three special advisers at the Treasury’s council of economic affairs – Geoffrey Spence, David Pinto-Duschinsky and Andrew Maugham.

Legal representatives, merchant bankers and leading accountants were also in the mix. These numbered the investment banks UBS and JP Morgan Cazenove, Slaughter and May, a firm of City lawyers, and Michael Klein, a former Citibank investment banker. In one case, the negotiations were a family affair: Naguib Kheraj from JP Morgan and Nilufer von Bismarck from Slaughter and May are brother and sister.

Then, of course, there was the Prime Minister and the Chancellor and their closest confidants from the Government and financial world. At least 30 officials burnt the midnight oil on Wednesday when the details of the rescue package were hammered out.

At the Bank of England, a spokesman insisted that the plan was a “collaborative” effort and bankers had worked, and would continue to work, “very closely with colleagues at the Treasury”.

The Financial Services Authority was equally keen to present a united front. “We have been working alongside the Bank of England and the Treasury on developing the whole package,” a spokesman said.

Over at No 10, the reply was short and sweet. “We wouldn’t go into that level of detail,” a spokesman said. “If you need more detail, then the Treasury is your first port of call.”

And so to the Treasury, which proved to be the one body not inclined to reticence.

“The Chancellor went before Parliament. It is obviously his policy.”

Will they stick to the line if it all ends in tears?

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