John McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, responding to the scrapping by the FCA of their review into banking culture, said:

“This will be a huge blow to customers and taxpayers who are all still paying the price for the failed culture in the banking sector that’s been widely attributed to be among the main causes of the crash and the scandals over Libor and price fixing.

"But what is also worrying is that they are ditching this review and replacing it with a potentially watered down version despite the obvious fact that we haven’t got to the bottom of cultural mispractice and when as far as we know there is still a problem. As a result this could potentially prove to be a dangerous and costly mistake in years from now.

"The Chancellor therefore cannot stay silent on this issue. It’s time he used his influence to keep this review going. Otherwise he’s letting down the rest of us who bailed the banks out and also allowing a signal to be sent to carry on regardless.

"Given the scale and severity of the failings in the financial sector and the criminal behaviour shown by some banks, the scrapping of the FCA’s review into banking culture sends the wrong message at the wrong time.”