GORDON BROWN: UK should have jailed bankers for 2008 crisis ‘like they did in Spain’

THE UK should have followed Spain’s lead in prosecuting rogue bankers, former British prime minister Gordon Brown has said.

In his new book, My Life, Our Times, the memoirs of Gordon Brown, out on November 7, Brown delivers a scathing attack on the bankers that precipitated the 2008 financial crisis, arguing that the sector has failed to learn key lessons.

“If bankers’ conduct was dishonest by the ordinary standards of what is reasonable and honest, should there not have been prosecutions in the UK as we have seen in Ireland, Iceland, Spain and Portugal?”

Brown, who was prime minister from 2007-2010 says in the book: “If bankers who act fraudulently are not put in jail with their bonuses returned, assets confiscated and banned from future practice, we will only give a green light to similar risk-laden behaviour in new forms.”

He adds: “Little has changed since the promise in 2009 that we bring finance to heel. The banks that were deemed ‘too big to fail’ are now even bigger than they were.”