Ken Livingstone: Make bankers pay 80% tax

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The former mayor said financiers earning more than £1 million should be forced to pay for their role in the financial crisis. More than 2,800 people in the City took home more than £1 million last year, according to the Financial Services Authority.

Mr Livingstone's critics immediately claimed he was more interested in keeping the unions happy than protecting investment in the capital. But in an interview with Time Out magazine, he said: "These are exactly the people that have landed us in this mess."

Mr Livingstone also suggested Londoners earning more than £200,000 should pay a 60 per cent rate — hitting tens of thousands more.

He said he was pro-investment but was against the type of market speculation that led to the financial meltdown.

"The Mayor should have an income tax so you can redistribute wealth ... Mrs Thatcher had a top rate of tax of 60 per cent for the first eight years and all these bankers were swarming here," he said.

"I think it would at least be a 60 per cent rate for everybody over £200,000. You might look at an 80 per cent rate for people earning £1 million... these are exactly the people that have landed us in this mess."

Oona King, his rival for the Labour nomination, warned that a higher tax rate could put London's future recovery at risk.

She said: "An 80 per cent tax rate runs a very serious risk of driving key parts of the City of London — the engine of the British economy — offshore and losing that tax income altogether."