Call for top bankers to quit

A senior Tory MP has called for top bankers to quit in the wake of the financial crisis.

John Maples, a deputy chairman of the party, said the chairmen and chief executives of "half a dozen" British banks should do the "honourable thing".

The comments are tougher than those previously made by the Conservative leadership - which has merely insisted there should be no "reward for failure".

Mr Maples, MP for Stratford-upon-Avon, told BBC Radio 4's Week in Westminster: "I just don't know how the banks have got away with no resignations and nobody being fired.

"In America people are being fired all over the place and here, the chairmen and chief executives of half a dozen banks really ought to do the honourable thing and resign."

The Lib Dems have called for the removal of senior executives who "run their banks into the ground".