Get our money-saving tips and top offers direct to your inbox with the Mirror Money newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Barclays is ditching more than a quarter of its wheeler-dealer bankers.

The scandal-hit firm has confirmed plans to axe 7,000 staff of the 24,000 worldwide in its investment arm.

And that cull will take the number of jobs expected to be lost by 2016 across the bank as a whole to 19,000 – about 10,000 of those in the UK.

The total includes 12,000 staff who Barclays had already said would go.

The clear-out at the investment unit marks a brutal end to former chief executive Bob Diamond’s era.

A big chunk of those going are within the firm’s former Barclays Capital – the “casino” banking arm built up by American Mr Diamond, who quit after the Libor rate-rigging scandal.

His replacement Antony Jenkins has vowed to clean up the bank’s battered image.

However, he suffered a backlash earlier this year after revealing staff in the investment bank were paid £1.5billion in bonuses in 2013 despite profits diving.

The bonus pot is expected to fall this year as a result of the cuts.

Mr Jenkins said: “With a smaller investment bank, our expectation is that the number of highly paid people, defined as over £1million, will come down over time.

“In the future, Barclays will be leaner, stronger, much better balanced to deliver lower volatility, higher returns and growth.”

Barclays suffered a shareholder rebellion at the

annual general meeting for increasing its company-wide bonus pool by 10% to £2.38billion despite profits crashing by a third .

The bank employs about 140,000 people around the world, including more than 50,000 in the UK.

About a third of the 7,000 job cuts will be in Britain.

There were no new announcements about branches, but Mr Jenkins said it is inevitable their staff numbers would fall.

Unite union’s Dominic Hook said: “These have been extraordinarily turbulent times for ordinary Barclays workers.

“The bank needs to give reassurances over their futures.”