The UK’s financial lobbyists hold a more powerful role in developing our financial policy now than at any other time in my 30 years as a financial campaigner.
The Labour government is continuing the work of its Conservative predecessors in promoting the financial sector’s interests on the unsubstantiated assumption that doing so will support national economic growth.
Even the watchdog charged with regulating the industry has been legally mandated to promote its growth and competitiveness. What was intended as a ‘secondary’ growth objective has become a de facto primary one, given equal status with other priorities, and threatens to compromise the regulator’s independence.
