Shorting the City: The Tories’ Brexit deal fails the financial services industry
By Pat McFadden There was a revealing moment in the House of Commons debate on the Government’s Brexit deal. Labour MP Peter Kyle asked the Prime Minister about the absence of coverage for financial services in the deal. The Prime Minister ducked the question but said he was glad Labour was “backing the bankers”. The Prime Minister’s response summed up how the financial services sector has been viewed by much…
Look north, Labour politicians urge the City
Sheffield is packed with people with PhDs. The Tees Valley is home to a skilled workforce of which Britain can be proud. The City can do more to invest in talent and support entrepreneurialism in these regions. Those were some key takeaways from a Labour in the City panel discussion focusing on how the financial services industry can contribute towards a “levelling up” of Britain’s dangerously geographically lop-sided economy. Jessie…
How the City can be a good neighbour
Your business may be global – but think locally about hiring, and mentoring, young people. That was the message to City employers from Rushanara Ali, the Labour MP for Bethnal Green & Bow, during a Q&A session with Labour in the City members. Rushanara’s constituency neighbours the Square Mile – it includes Spitalfields, Whitechapel and a chunk of Bishopsgate, together with East End neighbourhoods such as Stepney and Bow. She…
Sajid Javid: a man in a hurry
So Sajid Javid MP, ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer, has a new job advising JP Morgan. For someone whose standing as a politician went up earlier this year after resigning – and someone who will go down in history as the UK’s first Chancellor of Asian heritage – Mr Javid seems unconcerned about how this move might diminish his reputation and that of his colleagues. It is reasonable for voters to…
Not saying anything racist isn’t enough
Is it time to anonymise CVs to stamp out unconscious bias against BAME people in the financial services industry? Could banks and financial institutions bring in a “Rooney rule”, as in American football, whereby people of colour must be on the interview list for senior jobs? Should responsibility be shouldered by white “allies” to promote ethnic diversity rather than leaving the battle to be fought by BAME colleagues? Those were…
Ten years on: banking beyond the crisis
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…
The Lehman Trilogy review: where did banking’s purpose go?
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,…
Made in Dagenham….a clarion call for the City?
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
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…
How could Labour create a progressive financial services policy?
Regardless of who triumphs in the Labour Party’s leadership contest, it is worth considering how the party could construct a progressive financial services policy programme based on both its ideology and values and recognising the value of a robust financial sector. A fresh agenda in this area may now be worth pursuing given the ongoing global debate on reform of the financial system and corporate governance and the new Prime…