Jeremy Corbyn has hit back at investment bank Morgan Stanley, telling the firm it is right to regard him as a threat.
The Labour leader’s comments come after the US-owned bank released a report warning that the prospect of his party taking power was a bigger threat to the UK economy than Brexit.
In a video message released on social media in response, Mr Corbyn pledged that a Labour government would reform banking regulation to rein in the “speculators and gamblers” who crashed the economy in 2008.
Labour said that, despite the bank paying more than 3 billion dollars to US authorities over charges relating to its involvement in the crash, Morgan Stanley has been courted by senior members of the Government, meeting Chancellor Philip Hammond four times in a year.
A report from Morgan Stanley’s European equity team earlier this week 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 responded: “These are the same speculators and gamblers who crashed our economy in 2008. And then we had to bail them out.
“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.
“That’s meant a crisis in our public services, falling wages and the longest decline in living standards for over 60 years.
“Nurses, teachers, shop workers, builders, just about everyone is finding it harder to get by, while Morgan Stanley’s CEO paid himself £21.5 million last year and UK banks paid out £15 billion in bonuses.
“Labour is a growing movement of well over half a million members and a government-in-waiting that will work for the many. 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.”
A Conservative Party spokesman said: “The truth is it was Labour that presided over the financial crash and left over half a million more people on the dole. We were left to pick up the pieces.
“Under this Government, three million more people are in work and the rich have paid more in tax in every year of this government than they did in any of the 13 years of Labour.
“Corbyn talks a good game but, under his leadership, Labour blocked our measures to crackdown on £8.6 billion of tax avoidance.
“And Labour have admitted they are planning for a run of the pound. Once again working people would pay the price.”