“These are serious times,” John Glen told an audience of financial services executives at an informal private dinner in London in early October, shutting down earlier attempts in the evening to lighten the mood. “I won’t be making many jokes this evening because these are serious moments for the City, serious moments for the country and for the government.”

Glen has kept a relatively low-profile in the City press since he became the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, or City minister, in January.