The Slog has learned from Pru insiders this morning that one and probably both of the two men closely associated with the abortive purchase of AIA have been abruptly informed that they no longer enjoy the confidence of either the directors or shareholders of the company.

While earlier today the website Citywire observed that it was ‘baffling that both the chief executive Tidjane Thiam and the chairman Harvey McGrath (above) have not yet fallen on their swords’, many have seen the piece as an underestimate of the amount of brass in the average bigwig’s neck. But we can now reveal that the irresistible combo of Board disgruntlement and shareholder rage has already been passed separately to the two architects who have looked on as their Ivory Tower crumbled over the last week.

The Slog’s source declined to be named, but asserted that “Too much money has been lost for them to survive a shareholder confrontation, and the general view of the Board is that we’ve been made to look remote and stupid. That isn’t a basis for moving forward with the current management”.

The half billion Pound write-off from the scuppered deal is estimated to be the size of an average shareholder divident pot from Prudential.