Boris blasts Europe for attack on bonuses

In a speech in Paris, he warned the measures risked driving business abroad while “inflaming” sentiment in Britain against continued membership of the EU.

He also took a swipe at the euro and roundly denounced EU leaders for failing to resolve the problems of the eurozone, leaving it to become a “microcosm of low or zero growth”.

Chancellor George Osborne was isolated last week when he failed to secure any support for British proposals to water down the plan.

Addressing the Franco-British Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Mr Johnson insisted that the City should be seen as “an asset for Europe”.

He urged David Cameron to invoke the so-called Luxembourg compromise in which decisions affecting “a very important national interest” of one member state are deferred until there is unanimous agreement.

He even hinted that the Prime Minister could adopt the “empty chair” tactics of former French president Charles de Gaulle, boycotting the EU institutions.

He said that curbing bank bonuses would do nothing to resolve the underlying problems holding back the European economies.