Barclays was last night fighting claims it tried to bury details of a £40m jackpot for nine top executives from public view. Critics lined up to slam the bank for sneaking out details of the share windfalls – which included £17.6m for top casino banker Rich Ricci – just hours after the Chancellor delivered his latest austerity Budget. Trade unions and campaigners argued it undermined any progress the bank has made this year on being more open about how much it pays its staff. But Barclays yesterday scoffed at criticism that it was guilty of a classic ‘Jo Moore’ by publishing details of huge long term incentive awards and deferred bonuses just hours.

Jo Moore was an aide in the Labour Party who sent a notorious email to colleagues on September 11, 2001 – the day of the terrorist attacks in the US – saying it was ‘a good day to bury bad news’. It argued that the timetable to dish out these huge awards was set out 12 months ago, long before the Budget date was set on December 11. It also said it was governed by strict ‘disclosure and transparency’ rules, set by City watchdog, the Financial Services Authority. These dictate that the bank has a 48-hour window to disclose pay awards once it has been informed of them by administrators......Read more here