Brown calls for guilty bank bosses to be jailed

He wants the guilty men facing jail, be banned from new directorships, be ordered to return their bonuses – and have their pensions revoked.

His calls come in his memoirs, My Life, Our Times, which are published next week.

In an extract released today, the former Prime Minister writes “If bankers who act fraudulently are not put in jail with their bonuses returned, assets confiscated and banned from future practice, we will only give a green light to similar risk-laden behaviour in new forms.”and mistakes of the passt have not been learned, and the prospect of rogue bankers gamling again is ‘‘inevitable.’’

Mr Brown details the collapse of RBS, and isscathing of its disgraced former chief executive, Fred Goodwin who, he says, should have been stripped of his bonuses as well as his knighthood.

And Mr Brown reveals that he was prepared to resign immediately as Prime Minister if his banking rescue plan didn’t get the backing it needed.

He writes: ‘‘I went to bed at midnight on Tuesday, October7, with my mobile phone next to me in case of any further disasters. I had decided to announce the plan at 7am the following day, and that we would phone other national leaders and finance ministers immediately beforehand and afterwards.

“When I got up the next morning I told Sarah that she would have to be ready to pack our things for a sudden move out of Downing Street. If what I was about to do failed, with markets collapsing further and confidence ebbing from Britain, I would have no choice but to resign. As I walked into the office, I didn’t know if I’d still be there at the end of the day.”

> My Life, Our Times is published on Tuesday, November 7.