Post general election thoughts from Labour in the City Secretary, Nick Smith. This is the first time I’ve ever felt bad voting Labour.  There are many reasons for this but mainly because of what the party has come to represent, and how it’s no longer a viable candidate to run the country. I’ve seen the party change considerably in the past few years.  While we’re good at recruiting activists this…

Reflections on the general election from Labour in the City COO, Andrew Clark The binary nature of the bitter, hungover post-election argument in the Labour Party is dispiriting. Was it Brexit that lost it for us? The unpopular leader? The hostile media? An over-ambitious manifesto? Of course, it wasn’t one of these things – it was a bit of each. On Brexit, personally, I don’t blame the leadership for settling…

Over lunch with the Financial Times, John McDonnell fired a warning shot over bankers’ “grotesque” bonuses this weekend, pledging a consultation on ways to limit the size of payouts. “It’s become part of the [City] culture and it is so separate and distinct and isolated from the rest of the real-world economy and that’s why people are offended by it,” said the Shadow Chancellor, who is looking at options ranging…

Much has been said about the Irish Backstop, but little clarity has resulted. The current Prime Minister of the UK, Mr Johnson, has demanded that the Backstop be removed from the Withdrawal Agreement. He seems confident that the EU27 will back down on its insistence that it is retained. Seemingly, an impasse arises. However, if the rhetoric is removed, a much clearer picture emerges. Mr Johnson’s confidence appears to be…

Labour will be on an election footing this autumn, with a well thought out strategy ready for financial reform, the Shadow Chancellor told Labour in the City’s summer reception. “Anything can happen,” said John McDonnell, referring to the imminent appointment of a new Prime Minister. He urged financial institutions to work with him to develop plans that will work effectively to reform the economy. The Shadow Chancellor and Jonathan Reynolds,…

Is the Bank of England fit for purpose? That was the topic for a Labour in the City discussion hosted by Cicero which provoked a vigorous debate from our expert panel. The Labour Party is openly calling for a change to the Bank’s mandate, by adding a target of improving the nation’s stubbornly slow productivity by 3% annually, alongside inflation targeting and promoting financial stability. The idea of this shake-up…

To mark the tenth anniversary of the global financial crisis, Labour in the City launched an anthology of writing on the future of the financial services industry at a reception at London’s Guildhall with Alistair Darling, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer. More than 150 Labour in the City members heard Lord Darling offer his recollections on his role in stabilising the UK economy at the height of the banking…

By Sophia Morrell, Chair, Labour in the City Ten years on from the financial crisis, both the media and City are replete with perspectives on the crisis. However, none takes so profound a journey as The Lehman Trilogy into the genesis of an institution which is the emblem of a sector that lost its way. The play, written by Stefano Massini and playing at the National Theatre until October 20th,…

7 June 2018, marks the 50th anniversary of the strike by 187 female sewing machinists at a Ford car factory seeking sex equality, a story that inspired the 2010 film ‘Made in Dagenham.’ The strikes led to a meeting with Barbara Castle, then Employment Secretary, to discuss recognition and inequality of pay for females and, two years later, led to the inception of the Equal Pay Act 1970. Further developments…

All the President’s Men When a colleague and I were discussing the salubrious goings-on at the President’s Club dinner revealed by the Financial Times, the 22-year old parliamentary researcher in our office raised his head and said “What? Is that a real thing?” I too would have assumed we were talking about a Mad Men episode. In the past four years I’ve worked on different projects with Labour in the…