London's mayor Boris Johnson has called the European Union (EU) deal to cap bankers' bonuses as the most deluded measure since Roman times.
"This is possibly the most deluded measure to come from Europe since Diocletian tried to fix the price of groceries across the Roman empire," Johnson said in a statement.
The European parliament reached a provisional deal to limit variable pay to salary at a ratio of 1:1, although this can rise to 2:1 with shareholder approval.
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The deal was a blow to the U.K., which had been fighting to fend-off caps on banker pay. London's financial sector employs 320,000 people, despite massive cuts in recent years.
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron has promised a referendum on the U.K.'s membership of the EU after the next general election in 2015
"People will wonder why we stay in the EU if it persists in such transparently self-defeating policies. Brussels cannot control the global market for banking talent, Brussels cannot set pay for bankers around the world. The most this measure can hope to achieve is a boost for Zurich and Singapore and New York at the expense of a struggling EU," Johnson said.