Government reduces Lloyds stake to below 7%

It has now recovered over £17.5 billion of the £20.3 billion taxpayers injected into Lloyds during the financial crisis.

Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Simon Kirby, said: "Selling our shares in Lloyds Banking Group and making sure that we get back all the cash taxpayers injected into it during the financial crisis is a key government priority. So I am pleased that we have continued to reduce our stake in Lloyds, and have now recovered over £17.5 billion for the taxpayer."

The Lloyds trading plan initially ran from 17 December 2014 to 30 June 2016. The government announced on 7 October 2016 that further sales of Lloyds shares would also be made through a trading plan.

The government had planned to make Lloyds shares available to the public, but later abandoned the sale due to "turbulent markets".

Hargreaves Lansdown has since set up a petition asking the government to reconsider its decision to cancel the public sale of Lloyds shares, stating that 374,000 people registered their interest in the shares through its firm alone.