Labour could ban bankers’ bonuses
Posted by Phillip Dolby on 10th September 2019
FAT CATS of the banking world could have their bonuses banned in order to tackle high levels of inequality across the country, said senior members of the Labour Party this week.
The warning, issued by the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, was made during discussions about what a Labour government’s economic policy would be in the run-up to a general election.
He said a culture of excessive bonus payouts was still a reality a decade on from the financial crisis and Labour would introduce new rules to curtail such awards - including a potential ban - if banks did not take voluntary action first.
“If it continues and the City hasn’t learnt its lesson, we will take action, I’ll give them that warning now,” he told the Financial Times. “If we have to take action, we will. People are offended by bonuses.”
According to figures released by the European Banking Authority in 2019, more than 3,500 bankers in the UK were paid more than €1m (£900,000) in 2017, with a total income of almost €10bn between them. Their average pay is €2m.
McDonnell said: “It’s become part of the culture and it is so separate and distinct and isolated from the rest of the real-world economy and that’s why people are so offended by it. It’s a reflection of the grotesque levels of inequality that people now find so offensive.”
In a country which has suffered a recession caused in the first instance by greed in the financial services sector, this measure would be a welcome move from a Labour government, in my opinion.
Taxing the rich so as to help the poor is a British value much of the electorate believes to be important in our nation both in the past and still to this day. It's what marks us out as a civilised society.
If only bankers in the upper echelons of high finance would step outside their ivory towers at Canary Wharf and visit the inner cities and sprawling urban council estates where poor people struggle to make a living day-to-day.
The money used for big bonuses could go a long way in providing better education, housing, and employment opportunities for those who need them the most.
Activist and author Shane Claiborne said it best: "I truly believe when the rich meet the poor, riches will have no meaning. And when the rich meet the poor, we will see poverty come to an end.”
