Sunak to lift bankers’ bonus cap

Rishi Sunak is in office but Liz Truss remains in power. That’s the line that Labour are pushing on today’s announcement that the cap on bankers’ bonuses will be abolished next week. The change was initially announced by Kwasi Kwarteng in the infamous mini-budget of September 2022. It was one of the few measures to be retained when Chancellor Jeremy Hunt replaced Kwarteng at the Treasury on the grounds that it did not have an impact on state finances, unlike her tax cuts.

Labour are naturally keen to suggest that this shows that Sunak has not moved the Tories on from the Truss era. Darren Jones, the party’s Shadow Chief Secretary, was quick to condemn it as an indictment of the ‘out of touch Conservative government’ saying that ‘Rishi Sunak is marking his anniversary of becoming Prime Minister by pushing ahead with Liz Truss’ plan to axe the cap on bankers’ bonuses. When Truss says jump, Sunak says how high.’