The UK's labour unions have savaged the interim findings of Sir David Walker's review of transparency in the private equity industry for failing to address labour market concerns, with one leading member comparing the ex-Morgan Stanley International chairman to a monk who has taken a vow of silence.

Jack Dromey, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' section of the Unite union, reacted scathingly to Walker's review of private equity's transparency, saying it was "quiet on workers' rights to the point of Trappism", referring to the branch of Cistercian monks, characterised by austerity and a vow of silence, which was established in 1664 at La Trappe Monastery in northwest France.