Lloyds Banking Group delivered another blow to staff today as it unveiled plans to slash a further 15,000 jobs by 2014 in a bid to save £1.5 billion a year.

The huge round of job cuts was unveiled by new chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio as part of his strategic review for the taxpayer-backed lender.

The latest cull will bring total job losses at the 41% state-owned bank to more than 40,000 since the group was formed in 2009 when Lloyds TSB and HBOS merged.