Pressure is growing on Don Cruickshank, chairman of the London Stock Exchange, to step down after the LSE failed in its bid for Liffe, the UK derivatives market that was bought for £550m (€886m) by Euronext.

Last week, a significant number of shareholders in the LSE called for Cruickshank to resign. One shareholder, who represents a member firm, said that while Clara Furse, chief executive of the LSE, should be given a second chance, Cruickshank should go: 'Cruickshank has failed to convince on both the merger with Deutsche Börse last year and on Liffe. We cannot afford three in a row.'