The Daily Telegraph reports today that last night Martin O'Neill MP, who chairs the trade and industry select committee, said that the MPs would start an investigation of MG Rover parent Phoenix Venture Holdings within the next few months.

The announcement came in the wake of recent news concerning the establishment of a £13 million trust fund of which the founding directors and their families are the beneficiaries. The Telegraph has reported that in the three years since the assets of Rover were acquired from BMW for a notional sum, “deals and restructurings have made millions for the four. Last year they paid themselves £15 million.” Rover's unions the TGWU and Amicus-MSF have also made critical comments on the establishment of the Phoenix directors' trust.

Martin O'Neill, whose committee also looked into BMW's sale of the company to Phoenix Venture Holdings at the time of its disposal, said the select committee would now look at the structure of Phoenix Venture Holdings, MG Rover's parent company, and the firm's significance for the British car industry. A spokesman for Phoenix Venture Holdings told the paper, "The company has had no contact with the DTI or the select committee on this issue."