Labour leader calls bankers speculators and gamblers

Image source, PA

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has hit back at investment bank Morgan Stanley, telling the company it was right to regard him as a threat.

His comments came after the bank said in a report earlier this week that the risks of an incoming Labour government could be "as significant as Brexit".

On social media, he said bankers were the same "speculators and gamblers" who crashed the economy in 2008.

Bankers like Morgan Stanley "should not run our country", Mr Corbyn added.

Earlier this week, Morgan Stanley's European equity team warned investors: "For the UK market, domestic politics may be perceived as a bigger risk than Brexit.

"From a UK investor perspective, we believe that the domestic political situation is at least as significant as Brexit, given the fragile state of the current government and the perceived risks of an incoming Labour administration that could potentially embark on a radical change in policy direction."

Mr Corbyn hit out at bankers like Morgan Stanley.

"Their greed plunged the world into crisis and we're still paying the price, because the Tories used the aftermath of the financial crisis to push through unnecessary and deeply damaging austerity," he said.

Labour was a "government-in waiting," he said, "so when they say we're a threat, they're right.

"We're a threat to a damaging and failed system that's rigged for the few."

Mr Corbyn also said Morgan Stanley's chief executive, James Gorman, was paid 拢21.5m last year and UK banks paid out 拢15bn in bonuses, while "nurses, teachers, shop workers, builders, just about everyone is finding it harder to get by".