The Chancellor is reportedly weighing up whether to remove a cap on bankers’ bonuses as part of a shake-up of City rules.
Sources told the BBC and Financial Times no final decisions had been made, but added that Kwasi Kwarteng thinks such a move would make London more attractive to global banks.
Uncapped bonuses led to the excessive risk-taking that spawned the financial crisis of 2008, according to critics.
City bosses, however, have consistently taken issue with the EU-wide rules which cap bonuses at twice an employee’s salary.
It comes months after then-prime minister Boris Johnson insisted he was not planning to ease restrictions on bosses’ pay or lift the cap on bankers’ bonuses as millions felt the strain of the cost-of-living crisis.
And for good reason.
Polling released this week shows the decision to relax rules on banker bonuses is overwhelmingly unpopular with the British public.
Asked whether the cap should be scrapped in a YouGov poll, 67 per cent of Brits said it shouldn’t while only 15 per cent agreed that it should.
It follows similar polling around fracking and windfall taxes on oil and gas profits.
YouGov found 59 per cent of Brits don’t believe the UK should extract shale gas, compared to just 18 per cent who think it should.
Similarly, asked whether a windfall tax on oil and gas companies should be considered, 74 per cent of Brits would support such a measure compared to just 9 per cent who oppose it.
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