Investment giant Standard Life launched a broadside against the management of Bradford & Bingley today after potential bidder Resolution abruptly dropped its £400 million bailout bid for the UK mortgage lender, blaming the board's refusal to open talks.

Guy Jubb, head of corporate governance at Standard Life Investments, said: "We are very disappointed by today’s developments. We firmly believe that it would have been in the best long-term interests of Bradford and Bingley’s shareholders for its Board to have enabled Resolution’s proposals to progress.

He said many other investors, both large and small, would feel the same. "It is concerning that the Bradford & Bingley Board have not been more responsive to the views of their existing shareholders," he said.

It is extremely rare for shareholders to go public with their views. Standard Life is the biggest shareholder in B&B, with 5.3 per cent.

Shares in B&B plunged by nearly 20 per cent, down 15.5p to 64.5p, as the company prepared to pursue a cash injection from TPG, the US private equity firm. A competing offer from Resolution could have triggered an auction and lifted the price.

Resolution, which had the backing of four of B&B's largest shareholders, said the stubbornness of management, led by the chairman Rod Kent and advised by Goldman Sachs, had meant that it could not finalise its plans.

It said: "Given this, Resolution believes it cannot responsibly continue to recommend this proposal to Bradford & Bingley investors."

Resolution had secured the backing of B&B's largest shareholders, Legal & General, Standard Life, Insight and Prudential, to pump £400 million into the company.

The leading investors were joined yesterday by institutions holding at least a further 10 per cent of the shares in calling for B&B let Resolution into to examine the books for due diligence.

Despite signals earlier this week that Resolution was close to accessing its books, both B&B and Goldman have resisted.

Sources close to the B&B camp expressed worries that Resolution was creating uncertainty and not offering a sufficient premium for effectively taking control.

Resolution and a concert party of shareholders would have owned 55 per cent of the bank, but had promised to limit their voting rights to 29.9 per cent.

TPG has offered to pay 55p a share to take a 23 per cent stake in B&B, which would also launch a £258 million rights issue.

Shareholders now look set to vote in favour of this proposal at an emergency meeting on July 7.

As it left the scene, Resolution insisted that it remained committed to spending £2 billion over the next two years consolidating the UK's weakened banks into a highly rated individual company.

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