Paul Myners, former chairman of Marks & Spencer, will be the next chairman of Northern Rock if a bid by JC Flowers, the US private equity firm, beats its rival Virgin Group to the battered mortgage bank.

He is a key member of a team of high-profile names unveiled this morning ahead of a meeting with the bank where JC Flowers will outline his plans.

Former group chief executive of Alliance & Leicester, Richard Pym, is to be executive deputy chairman and chief executive for the initial period of stabilisation.

Hugh Scott-Barrett, the former ABN AMRO chief financial officer will be finance director.

Mr Myners, currently in charge of a body implementing the UK government’s plans for a national savings scheme, has stood down as a member of the Court of the Bank of England while "any actual or potential conflict of interest remains".

JC Flowers advisers include: Bob Bennett, ex-chief financial officer of Northern Rock; Peter Birch, former chief executive of Abbey National and; Sir Martin Jacomb, ex-chairman of Prudential and chairman of Canary Wharf.

The group move on Northern came as it emerged that the beleaguered lender tapped the Bank of England for another £4.7 billion in emergency lending over the past week. That took its total borrowing from the Bank so far to £20.6 billion.

In a statement issued today, JC Flowers said that having the team in place “does not constitute an offer” for Northern Rock “or even an announcement of a firm intention to make an offer”.

However, the move comes as a consortium led by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group pushes ahead with its proposal, led by Jayne-Anne Gadhia, the Virgin Money boss.

American private equity group Cerberus is also understood to be circling the Newcastle bank.

Citigroup is ready to lend up to £10 billion in financing for Northern Rock and its potential acquirers. However, before that can happen, the bank needs to unstitch an agreement with the Bank of England for a limitless supply of credit, guaranteed against its assets.

In September the Bank of England stepped in to offer emergency loans to the stricken bank after it was hit by a liquidity squeeze in financial markets.

The result was the first run on a major British bank in more than 140 years. Earlier this month, chairman Matt Ridley resigned and was replaced by Bryan Sanderson, the former chairman of the international bank Standard Chartered and of the health insurer BUPA.

Northern Rock shares were up nearly three per cent at one stage in early trading, but lost much of their early gains to return to overnight levels of around 187.50p.

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