The Conservatives' plan to introduce a global banking tax in an attempt to get back some of the taxpayers' cash that helped bail out the financial sector could have a negative effect on City jobs, according to UK chancellor Alistair Darling.
"A hell of a risk" to City jobs would be posed by the tax unless it had financial support, Mr Darling said.
"It could only work if there was an international agreement," he explained.
"I think we are going to get our money back but the important thing to remember about this industry is, yes, it has had its trauma and, yes, there have been some ridiculous things that have happened, [but] this is an industry that employs over a million people and it is taking a hell of a risk, the Tory approach."
Mr Darling believes the policy seems to have been "made on the hoof". He also said the Conservatives seem "indifferent" to the dangers a unilateral levy could pose to UK jobs.
Britain's Budget for 2010 will be delivered this Wednesday (March 24th). The chancellor announced the date in a written ministerial statement earlier this month.
