The Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell says the Labour party will launch an independent review of the entire corporate auditing and accounting regime in the UK to stop existing firms preventing new market entrants or driving down standards.

The move would see the Big Four -Deloitte and KPMG, EY, PwC, Grant Thornton and BDO no longer being allowed to dominate the sector.

Its the latest broadside against the major accounting firms that is likely to drive change- a government without a clear majority beset by the Brexit challenge is likely to relent to pressure and ask the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to examine the issue.