CITY DIARY: Lord Jones accused of idealistically portraying post-Brexit Britain

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Idealist? Lord Jones of Birmingham

Brexit-supporting Lord Jones of Birmingham, chirpy ex-boss of the CBI, was accused by Labour's Chris Leslie yesterday of idealistically portraying post-Brexit Britain as 'everybody skipping through the fields eating marshmallows and sweets'. 

A tactless analogy, surely. Once a portly Michelin man, I'm told Digby, 61, cut out sugary treats some time ago on doctor's orders, shedding seven stone on a crash diet.

Co-op chairman and boardroom habitue Allan Leighton says of outgoing chief executive Richard Pennycook: 'His place in Co-op history is secured.' 

Not half as secured as the Co-op's infamous former banking chairman, drug-sniffing rent-boy patron Paul Flowers. 

Whatever happened to the so-called Crystal Methodist? He was finally defrocked last month, and has found love with strapping nightclub DJ James Nicholson, known colloquially on Merseyside as N-Tyce.

Following yesterday's publication of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) green budget, which forecast a £40billion black hole in public finances, swotty Blackrock analyst (and George Osborne acolyte) Rupert Harrison, 37, tweets nostalgically: 'Eleven years ago when I edited the IFS green budget I think we warned about a £10billion hole in the public finances. Those were the days…'

Tweedy Ex-Barclays Capital boss-turned racehorse magnate Rich Ricci is stoical after his three most prized nags were ruled out of next month's Cheltenham Festival due to injury. 

He says: 'I'm a next-trade kind of guy and you've got to make the most of what you have.' Which in aptly-named Rich's case is rather a lot more than most. While he was Bob Diamond's sidekick at Barclays, he once paid himself £44million.

There are fears over shadow chancellor and City agitator John McDonnell's spokesman James Mills. 

Once an adviser to his boss's predecessor Ed Balls, Mills, 32, was considered a (mildly) more sensible fiscal influence among Corbynista loons. But since the new year, he's given up meat and alcohol. 

He's also grown an unkempt, Jezza-style beard. 'Gone native,' sighs an ex-colleague.

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