Alistair Darling hits back at French threats to the City of London
The Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling has today hit back at Nicolas Sarkozy's comments regarding the EU finance ministry and an attack on the power of the City of London financial markets. The attack, which we covered earlier today, was an outright threat to the power of the financial markets in London with EU ministers looking to "spread the power" amongst European markets. However, Alistair Darling has a totally different take on the subject and hit back in spectacular style.
The Chancellor believes that the various financial markets located in London are the only real global rival to the various New York financial markets. Quite rightly, he has pointed out that London is head and shoulders above any other European stock market and financial centre offering a range of products and services which few others in the world can match. Rather than looking to reduce the power of London, to the benefit of the French and other EU financial markets, he believes that London should be used as the headline figure to attack various other global powerhouses.
In truth, the EU has been looking to reduce the influence of the City of London for some time as the markets located in the UK have a power and influence which few other markets in the world can match. Whether EU ministers will heed the warning from Alistair Darling remains to be seen but it does make perfect commercial sense to use London as the hammer to knock down the door into other global financial markets.
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