The Isle of Man's chief minister is defending his performance before a United Kingdom Treasury Select Committee in London last week.

Tony Brown has been speaking for the first time since the visit of a Manx delegation to Westminster, where he was grilled on the Isle of Man's handling of the Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander banking collapse.

He has come under fire from depositors who have critisised the way he reacted to the questions he was asked, his performance being described as 'weak' and 'disappointing'.

However, Mr Brown says the evidence he gave to the Select Committee was put over in a 'straight forward' and 'professional' manner.

He told Manx Radio:

"I think that we appropriately answered the questions that were put to us and I think there also has to be a recognition that this was evidence to a Select Committee, and of course we are also dealing directly with the UK government through the Ministry of Justice and the UK Treasury.

"So, we've made our views very well known in terms of our disappointment with the actions of the UK authorities - I said that in my evidence to the Select Committee, and we've also made that point quite clearly in our written responses."

Mr Brown is also sticking to his guns in terms of where his priorities lie:

"I'm not a champion of the depositors - they had their own spokesman who gave evidence to the committee.

"My role is first to represent the Isle of Man, and secondly to represent the aspect of how that has affected the depositors.

"I think there has to be a recognition and an understanding of the amount of work that is going on in the Isle of Man in relation to trying to ensure that we get the best way forward for the depositors."