Bankers' Bonuses Should Be Curbed, Labour To Say

Bonuses In The Spotlight

The government will come under greater pressure to tackle rising youth unemployment and bankers' "excessive" bonuses on Monday.

Speaking ahead of a Labour-led Commons debate this afternoon, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Rachel Reeves said: "We are already starting to see that David Cameron's promises to rein in excessive bonuses have been just warm words, with multimillion-pound bonuses set to be paid out even at banks bailed out by the taxpayer where the share price has almost halved.

"And there are now a record number of young people out of work, with the number of young people on the dole for more than six months doubling since this time last year."

She said ministers should be "compelled" to rethink their economic plans and called on the coalition to repeat Labour's tax on bank bonuses to fund 100,000 jobs for young people.

Reeves added: "We need a change of course from this Government, whose failing economic plan is leading to £158 billion more borrowing than planned."

Labour leader Ed Miliband has called on David Cameron to block any million pound-plus bonus payout to the chief executive of the predominantly state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland.

The calls to curb Stephen Hester's bonus come after a week in which MPs seriously considered stripping the former RBS boss Sir Fred Goodwin of his knighthood.

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