A special deal for the City to ensure financial services firms can operate across the European Union after Brexit can still be done, shadow chancellor John McDonnell believes, despite the French President essentially ruling out such an agreement.
"Im really worried that if we don't get the passporting thing right it will impact our financial sector and also our services sector overall, so that's something we've got to negotiate," said McDonnell, speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.
Read more: The CBI is calling for the UK to stay in a customs union with the EU
"It would cost jobs and start undermining our financial sector, that's why though, I think there's a deal to be had. It's not just the financial sector benefiting our own country, it benefits Europe as a whole.
The City will not get full access to the Single Market after Brexit, French President Emmanuel Macron has said, without full membership.
"For sure, full access for financial services to the Single Market is not feasible given the functioning of the Single Market. So by definition, it is not full access," he said, also speaking on the same show.
"I'm not the one to negotiate and I don't want to close doors, but it depends what you are ready to put on the table in terms of precondition. If you respect the precondition to get access to the Single Market, it's feasible," he said.
McDonnell said he understood why Macron had been "fairly hard-nosed about it" at this stage, "but in the negotiations I'll think we'll see a softening because of the increasing recognition of the joint benefits we get".
"I don't think he's bluffing. He's setting out certain parameters... but I don't necessarily think he will dominate in the discussions about the mandate, but we'll see," he said, adding that he believed that it was only a Labour government that could secure a deal that allowed passporting or its equivalent.
Read more: Emmanuel Macron says there will be no special Brexit deal for the City
That stance came in for criticism however, with Tory MP James Cleverly tweeting: "John McDonnell pretending to be the defender of the City of London and the UK’s financial services sector. What a joke."
Meanwhile, Macron said the City's position as the centre of European finance should be something to be taken into consideration during negotiations but that France wants to attract "maximum activity" when it comes to luring financial services firms thinking of relocating.