Lord Turner’s comments were largely scorned by City employees who had flocked to pubs in the square mile on Tuesday to make the most of the evening sunshine.

Nursing a pint of bitter outside the Wetherspoon’s at Poultry, an asset manager – whose company has shed 10 per cent of its 260 staff and has withheld bonuses for the past year – insisted that the spirit of post-crisis frugality was alive and well.