The number of job openings in London’s financial services industry has fallen by nearly 30 per cent in the first six months of the year.

A report by Morgan McKinley, recruitment consultancy revealed that the number of jobs in the finance industry fell by 29 per cent in from the start of the year to June.

The report blamed Brexit for the fall in job openings in the financial services sector and pointed to HSBC’s plans to shift as many as 1,000 staff to Paris and Goldman Sachs plans to double its workforce in Frankfurt.

Len Duvall, leader of the London Assembly Labour group, said: “This shortfall in job openings is symptomatic of the Government’s protracted failure to provide any cast-iron certainty to the City in the face of our impending departure from the EU.

“Sadly, two years on from the Referendum, it is clear that this divided Government has no robust or comprehensive plan to protect our capital’s economy and the jobs of Londoners.

“To ensure that optimism is restored in the City, it is vital that the Government change tack and secure the same benefits and frictionless trade in services afforded to members of the EU. Going forward, we need to see the proposals laid out for much stronger protections for our financial services sector.”

The report also showed that there was a six per cent decrease in jobs in the financial sector between May to June this year and a 31 per cent decrease from May 2017 compared to May this year.

Managing director at Morgan McKinley, Hakan Enver said: “What’s bad for British business is certainly bad for European workers, too.

“We shouldn’t be making it any more attractive to move jobs out of London than it already is.”

A new report from TheCityUK also found that if businesses cannot directly hire top talent irrespective of their nationality, they will experience a 300% cost increase in hiring of non-British staff.

Later today the UK’s “Brexit Blueprint” will be revealed which will set out the country’s expectations for leaving the EU such as workers rights and trading agreements.