British Business Secretary Peter Mandelson today launched a fierce attack on one of Britain’s richest bankers, as Labour stepped up its pre-election sparring over the state of the economy.

Banking giant Barclays posted record annual profits of £11.6bn (€13.3bn) for 2009 today as its two most senior bosses turned down bonuses for the second year in a row.

Barclays and HSBC today gave hope that consumer debt woes in the UK were starting to ease as the banking giants reported sharp quarter-on-quarter falls in loan losses.

British prime minister Gordon Brown said today there should be a "clawback" system for UK bankers' pay if deals went wrong, as he pledged to speed up reform of financial markets.

The British Chancellor Alistair Darling has signalled he is ready to legislate to curb huge market bonuses amid growing public fury over “rewards for failure”.