This belief was fostered after a telephone conversation in the autumn of 2008 between Mr Tucker and Bob Diamond, who at the time ran Barclays' investment bank, Barclays Capital, and is today chief executive of Barclays.

BBC: What did Bank of England say to Barclays about Libor?

These senior people have now been named by the BBC's business editor Robert Peston: Paul Tucker at the Bank of England, and Bob Diamond at Barclays.

BBC: The strange silence and an absence of information

Today, under cross examination by MPs, Bob Diamond may reveal more about his call with Paul Tucker, the man from the Bank of England who said senior Whitehall figures were pressurising him.

BBC: Barclays Banks - A Whitehall whodunit

As it happens, Bob Diamond's note of his conversation on October 29 2008 with Paul Tucker, deputy governor of the Bank of England, implies he was having similar conversations with the ministers and officials of SW1.

BBC: The elusive truth about Barclays�� lie

Following the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee's lamentable performance in questioning Bob Diamond last week, few expect this week's appearance by Mr. Tucker to provide clear answers to the questions over the role of officials.

WSJ: U.K. Must Restore Confidence in London

We are all understandably interested in what Bank of England deputy governor Paul Tucker and other senior officials may or may not have said about the Libor to Bob Diamond or other bankers, at the height of the credit crunch in 2008.

BBC: Inconvenient truths about Libor

Associated Press writers Bridget Murphy and Bob Salsberg in Boston, Lynn Berry in Moscow, and Kimberly Dozier, Adam Goldman, Eric Tucker, Matt Apuzzo, and Eileen Sullivan in Washington contributed to this report.

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