CAMPAIGNERS started a three-day protest outside Barclays’ annual shareholders’ meeting in central London yesterday after the bank was slammed for its role in the NHS’s privatisation.

The People vs PFI organised the demonstration outside the AGM and sent members into the meeting on the South Bank to quiz Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins on tax avoidance and PFI projects.

Barclays has invested in almost 60 British public-private partnerships in the health industry, including the trust running Lewisham A&E, which is threatened with closure due to PFI debts.

Campaigner Joel Benjamin said: “The true cost of PFI, and its real impact on staff, services, and local citizens are so hidden beneath the cloak of commercial secrecy that AGMs provide a rare opportunity to hold powerful interests like Barclays to account for their role in tax avoidance and the closure or privatisation of public services, via PFI.”