In an article on the BBC website, the broadcaster’s economics editor Kamal Ahmed wrote: “I understand senior figures at the Bank are using the number as a ‘reasonable scenario’, particularly if there is no specific UK-EU financial services deal.”

He went on to say that, although the number is clearly dependent on the UK’s post-Brexit relationship with the EU, substantial job losses in the finance sector are apparently expected.

Despite being contacted several times, the Bank of England was unavailable for comment.

Enemy of Brexit

However, some have questioned whether this unattributable comment from Bank of England officials represents needless fear mongering and lacks economic credibility, given its rather patchy record of economic forecasting. Eurosceptic MP Jacob Rees Mogg has previously branded Bank of England governor Mark Carney as an “enemy of Brexit” after he warned quitting the EU would harm household finances.

The Brexit warning comes on the same day the Guardian reports that Gordon Brown claimed bankers should have been jailed for their fraudulent and dishonest behaviour during the financial crisis. A crisis that led to Britain’s deepest post-war recession.

In his memoirs, My Life, Our Times, Gordon Brown wrote: “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.”