Banks ‘complacent’, says Lib Dem leader

banking system have not been held to account; Fred Goodwin is just one example. Until the recent Barclays case, most of the people involved had walked away.”

Sir Vince, Business Secretary between 2010 and 2015, said his Tory counterparts were “not eager” to hold bankers responsible for the crisis.

He explained: “We wanted to see more radical action than they were comfortable with. The Tories were much closer to the banking industry than we were, much more likely to apologise for it.

“They tried to shift all the responsibility on to budget deficit rather than acknowledge the underlying problem was the banking crisis. It has induced quite a lot of political cynicism.

“Ten years after the crisis, living standards are no higher than they were before and there is the sense that the people who caused the problem have walked away and that has fed a sense of disillusionment.”