Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs, has hinted that the City of London could lose out to Frankfurt in the wake of Brexit.

The head of one of the world's most powerful banks took a deliberate potshot at Brexit via Twitter, saying: "Just left Frankfurt. Great meetings, great weather, really enjoyed it. Good, because I'll be spending a lot more time there. # Brexit"

His message, fired out after a week of client meetings in Germany and a day after he hosted an employee town hall in Frankfurt, adds to the pressures facing Theresa May as she prepares for a crucial Brexit meeting with European leaders in Brussels.

Shared more than 2,000 times by Thursday afternoon, his tweet whipped up debate. Nigel Evans, a Eurosceptic Tory MP for Ribble Valley, dubbed it "pathetic" adding that it "quite frankly undermines the UK’s position in these negotiations and does not help one jot."

The message also notably came just weeks after the Wall Street bank signed a lease for the upper floor of the Marienturm tower, based in the heart of Frankfurt's business district and directly opposite its European rival Deutsche Bank.

The space has capacity to seat up to 1,000 staff, which, if filled, significantly boosts Goldman's presence in the city from the 200 employees based there at the moment.