Peter Beale, Nick Stephenson, John Edwards and John Towers - known as the Phoenix Four - have voluntarily agreed a ban for between three and six years.

The disqualifications by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, follow a "lengthy and complex investigation" into MG's collapse.

The men said they do not accept any allegations of wrong-doing.

The directors of Phoenix Venture Holdings Ltd bought MG Rover, in Birmingham, for £10 in 2000 and paid themselves £40m in pay and pensions.

A spokesman for the consortium said the former directors, who have never faced criminal charges, had done nothing wrong.

He said they had voluntarily agreed to the ban: "As they have already made it clear that they have no intention of holding company office in the UK, they have agreed to a voluntary compromise, while emphatically not accepting any allegations or suggestions of wrong-doing.

"The former directors point out that they have done nothing which justifies disqualification. All of the many inquiries into the collapse of MG Rover have achieved little other than a series of massive bills."

Surely the fact they voluntarily agreed to the ban means they think if it ever came to court they'd get much worse...