City firms generated a record £75.5bn of tax last year as they resisted an economic slowdown and political turmoil.

Financial services companies such as banks and insurers accounted for more than £1 in every £10 of tax paid into Treasury coffers in the year to March 2019, a study by consultants at PwC commissioned by the City of London Corporation found.

They paid £33.4bn in taxes and collected a further £42.1bn for the exchequer, primarily through income tax and national insurance contributions deducted from employees’ wages. The total contribution was up £500m or 0.7pc from the previous 12 months.

The increased total contribution – which highlights the industry's importance for funding vital public services – masked the first fall in corporation tax paid by finance firms since 2014 due to a decline in profits. The industry paid £1.3bn, or 9.5pc less corporation tax than a year earlier.

However, the figures suggest that predictions of a mass exodus from the City due to Brexit were wide of the mark. It was claimed before the European Union referendum that as many as 200,000 finance jobs could be lost if Leave won, but this figure has since been scaled back to as few as 7,000.

Catherine McGuinness, policy chair at the City of London Corporation, warned that the UK should not take financial services for granted after it leaves the EU at the end of this month.