Business needs skilled foreign workers post-Brexit says Barclays chief

In a wide-ranging interview Mr Staley also said that plans for high speed rail links to Yorkshire were “very compelling” and praised efforts to make the region act more collaboratively economically.

Mr Staley also predicted that Britain would remain strongly connected to the European Union following Brexit and that the City of London would retain its position as a global financial epicentre.

When asked what his principal hope for the Brexit negotiations was, he told this newspaper: “That the immigration policy of the United Kingdom be such that this country continues to enjoy the benefits of very talented, skilled labour from outside the UK and that the UK can have one of the best trained labour forces.

“For me what is more important than passporting is the immigration policy, and it is not just engineers and technicians, it is also skilled labour which I think is very important as well.

“I think balancing what the voters voted for in terms of controlling the country’s borders with making sure we continue to have access to the right labour pool is very important.

“And for us in the short term we have 3,000 workers here in the UK who are here under the European Union passports. Making sure that their future and destiny is made known as soon as possible is also very important to us.”

Mr Staley insisted that the banking industry was being listened to be Government regarding the Brexit negotiations but stressed the process of exiting the EU would be highly complicated.

“I actually think that the bank has got quite a robust discussion or communication with the Government.

“I have been very fortunate to have met a couple of times with the Prime Minister in her office. I was invited to a meeting with a secretary of state last Friday.

“This is a massively complex issue. It is going to be very, very difficult to get clarity and to lessen the uncertainties over the next couple of years. But that just is what it is when you are negotiating such a complicated trade deal between the European Union and the UK.”

With regards to the future of the City of London, Mr Staley said: “I think Europe and the United Kingdom will be linked in a very significant way for decades. And I just don’t think that is transportable in any short period of time.

“There is such a critical mass in London that I think London will continue to be an extremely important financial centre for the European Union.”

In terms of the impact that Brexit could have on Barclays, Mr Staley said it was clear that some alterations to the bank’s structure would become necessary.

“There is no question we are a British institution,” he said.

“And the leading focus of our investment and our human capital will be in the United Kingdom. What I think you will see happen is that in some of our locations in the European Union we will increase staff but relative to our overall members of staff.

“So I do not see it as subtracting jobs from the UK. We will need to add some jobs in the European Union to meet the requirement from the European regulators.”