John McDonnell: Overthrowing the City
Labour’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell has described his job as “overthrowing capitalism”. So it promised to be an entertaining evening when he agreed to speak to around 30 City bigwigs at the FT City Network’s March gathering on Tuesday. The big bank chairmen John McFarlane (Barclays); Norman Blackwell (Lloyds); and Shriti Vadera (Santander UK) were all there, as were Legal & General boss Nigel Wilson, outgoing GSK chairman Philip Hampton and City of London policy chief Catherine McGuinness. It was the second attempt to get McDonnell into the lions’ den, otherwise known as FT HQ, for a City Network gathering. A first try was cancelled on the morning of the event. This time McDonnell went one better, pulling out of a 6pm event at 6.15pm. A knife-edge vote on the European budget was the excuse. But attendees were peeved. His no-show may have undone some of the City charm offensive McDonnell has engaged in over the past year. Whether it would have lost the Corbyn/McDonnell ticket some votes in any upcoming election is more moot. But at least one of the jilted financiers was unsurprised. “It’s the fourth time he…
