The Treasury has decided to postpone the state’s sale of its remaining shares in Lloyds Banking Group following recent turmoil on global stock markets.

The Chancellor, George Osborne, said: “I want to create a share-owning democracy. It’s also my responsibility to ensure economic responsibility, so with these turbulent financial markets now is not the right time to have that sale.

“We will sell Lloyds to the British people, but we will do so when the time is right.”

In October 2015 Osborne signalled the government’s intention to fully exit from its Lloyds shareholding.