INTERVIEW

STEPHEN Jones stares at the table in front of him and strums his fingers nervously. ‘I very much regret what I said,’ he confesses. ‘What I said was on a taped telephone call internally – but I do understand that in the context of the very public role I had at UK Finance, what I said posed a big reputational issue for them and for the industry.’

The former Barclays banker is talking about a now infamous phone call with one of his then colleagues in 2008 as they raced to secure an investment that would keep the bank afloat in the financial crisis.

The £7billion deal with Middle Eastern investors was ultimately a success – and it set Jones up for a career in the top echelons of banking. He rose to become the finance chief of Santander and then became the head of influential bank lobby group UK Finance.

But the words he uttered on that telephone call came back to haunt him last summer. Court documents revealed he made a number of derogatory remarks about Amanda Staveley, the high-flying financier who was orchestrating the Barclays rescue deal. Staveley had brought in key investors from the United Arab Emirates and later took the bank to court claiming she was not paid properly.

The case sent shockwaves through the City when it emerged Jones had described Staveley as ‘thick as s**t’ and commented on the size of her breasts. The court papers released as part of the case also revealed

Jones referred to Staveley as Prince Andrew’s former girlfriend and that he said that particular romantic relationship was how she ‘got close to a few sheikhs’ – including Abu Dhabi royal and potential Barclays investor Sheikh Mansour.

Jones was recorded saying of Staveley’s links to the sheikh: ‘Whether she’s sleeping with him or not I couldn’t tell you. I doubt it to be honest but anyway, I mean, you know.’

His interview with The Mail on Sunday today is the first time Jones has publicly addressed those remarks since he left UK Finance in disgrace in June last year. Jones says: ‘If in a moment of stress having not slept very much for three weeks, and in the context of the bank possibly being nationalised, I described [Amanda Staveley] in very unflattering, and rude and sexist language then that’s my fault,’ he says. ‘I shouldn’t have done it.’

He seems to relax as soon as the words leave his mouth. It has clearly been eating away at him over the past year. Jones reveals he has patched things up with Staveley – the pair are now on good terms – but he has certainly paid a price.

While he insists friends in the City expressed their support privately,

‘It can be a lonely place when you’re expelled’