Big four accountancy firms PwC and EY have said they will stop offering consulting services to audit clients in a bid to stop the firms being broken up.

The two firms are following in the footsteps of KPMG who said in November it would phase out advisory work for its British accountancy clients after the collapse of construction firm Carillion, which KPMG audited, led to calls for the big four to be broken up.

Kevin Ellis, chairman and senior partner at PwC UK, told parliament’s business committee that the firm is “absolutely up for change,” and that it supports “the idea of a new, robust, statutory appointed re...