The demands of one of the world's great financial centres have collided with the quaint procedures of a pre-democratic age as senior City figures work behind the scenes to change the way London's lord mayor is elected.

A committee has been wrestling for almost a year with the dilemma of how to ensure a flow of high-quality candidates without the need for a protracted legal overhaul that might affront traditionalists and Labour leftwingers alike. They have been taking the advice of QCs and historians in the search for a solution.