NEWS FROM LABOUR: George Osborne spends £43,000 of taxpayers’ money defending bankers’ bonuses

George Osborne’s legal challenge against the EU cap on bank bonuses has cost British taxpayers over £43,000 according to new figures.
A response from the Treasury to a Freedom of Information by Labour’s Cathy Jamieson has disclosed that the total cost of external legal fees relating to the legal challenge and connected advice is £43,064.

The true cost to the taxpayer is likely to be even higher as these figures are only for the external legal costs of the challenge and do not include the cost of civil servants who worked on the case.
The challenge was abandoned in November.

Commenting, Cathy Jamieson MP, Labour’s shadow financial secretary to the Treasury, said:

“While working families face a cost-of-living crisis, it is astounding that George Osborne chose to waste taxpayers’ money fighting a bank bonus cap.
"His decision revealed his true priorities and showed just how out of touch he is.
“It shouldn’t have taken the EU to act to rein in excessive bonuses, but George Osborne has totally failed to act here in Britain.
“Labour will reform the banks and levy a tax on bank bonuses to fund a paid starter job for young people out of work for over a year.”
Ends

 Editor’s Notes

1. The cap restricts bankers’ bonuses to 100 percent of their pay, or 200 percent with shareholder approval.

2. George Osborne lodged a legal challenge with the European Court of Justice on the bonus cap in September 2013. (HM Treasury, 23 September 2013, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/legal-challenge-launched-into-new-rules-on-bankers-pay)
3. It was abandoned in November 2014 when Osborne said it was “unlikely to succeed”.
“In a surprise move, the UK government has withdrawn its legal challenge to EU legislation that caps the level of bankers’ bonuses. “Chancellor George Osborne said he had recognised the challenge was ‘now unlikely to succeed’.” BBC News, 20 November 2014, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30125780