Sadiq adviser urged to quit after ‘saying financial crashes are good’

TORIES today called for Sadiq Khan’s business adviser to stand down as footage emerged of him saying financial crashes were essentially a good thing.

Rajesh Agrawal, chairman of foreign exchange giant RationalFX, said that market volatility could be lucrative during an interview in 2011 while the UK economy was still recovering from the financial crash.

He told the BBC :“Markets are immensely volatile and it’s always good to have that volatility to make money.”

Nearly £26 billion was knocked off the value of the UK economy during the downturn and thousands of people lost their jobs.

Conservative MP Paul Scully said: “For Sadiq Khan to employ someone as business adviser who so callously thinks the ruin caused was a good thing ‘to make money’ is shocking and shows what a risk Khan would be for London’s economy.

“This man should resign and if he won’t, Khan should sack him immediately.”

However, Mr Agraw al said his remarks were historic and had been taken out of context, and he had been referring to his own business sector of foreign exchange.

“They are now trying to use it to discredit their opponent. Rather than pour scorn on successful entrepreneurs, it is a shame that Zac Goldsmith has not put more thought into how he would help London’s small businesses,” he said.

Labour insiders said Mr Goldsmith himself had advocated “forced” economic crashes and called for a ban on all international trade deals as a way of tackling climate change while editor of The Ecologist.