Gordon Brown: 'City is ideologically bankrupt'
The Prime Minister has declared the City "ideologically bankrupt" and promised Labour that bankers "will pay back the British people" in a speech positioning the Government firmly against the Square Mile ahead of a general election.
Gordon Brown linked the financial crisis with the Tories, claiming that "what let the world down" was "the Conservative idea that markets always self-correct but never self-destruct".
He blamed "right-wing fundamentalism that says you just leave everything to the market and says that free markets should not just be free but values-free".
The Prime Minister reinforced Alistair Darling and Lord Mandelson's pledge of tough regulation to curb excess. He said: "We will pass a new law to intervene on bankers' bonuses whenever they put the economy at risk and any director of any of our banks who is negligent will be disqualified from holding any such post."
He also dropped all previous attempts to reassure high earners that the 50pc tax hike would be the last change, saying that, in order to address Britain's public deficit, Labour "will raise tax at the very top".
Lord Davies, junior business minister and ex-banker, told The Daily Telegraph: "The Prime Minister's speech was tough. The banks have to understand that they are still out of touch with society and people are angry – and rightly so because it's society that has picked up the tab. There must be change."
Mr Brown announced that the Post Office would be revamped to meet plans for greater competition in the banking system and rebuild public trust in financial services. The network will offer current and savings accounts, mortgages and loans to small businesses.
The Prime Minister also pledged the creation of a £1bn "national investment corporation" to provide finance for businesses and a rise in the minimum wage.
The measure caused alarm in the business community by adding further uncertainty about statutory pay.
John Cridland, deputy director general of the CBI, said: "Ministers would not make promises about interest rates when they are set by an independent committee at the Bank of England, so it is troubling when they appear to treat the minimum wage in a different way."
Mr Brown revealed a partnership with the Federation of Small Business to provide 10,000 skilled internships. He also pledged to give local authorities power to ban 24-hour drinking, promising to "make pubs and clubs pay for cleaning up their neighbourhood and making it safe."
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