#TaxTheBanks

Years of higher interest rates have sent our rent, mortgage, and debt payments soaring, while banks have raked in huge profits for doing absolutely nothing.

The big four UK banks (Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, and NatWest) made a record pre-tax profit of £45.9 billion in 2024 and they're on track to beat that this year - having made £24 billion in the first six months of 2025. [1]

Introducing a 38% levy, in line with the Energy Profits Levy on oil and gas companies who also profited from the cost of living crisis, could bring in £11 billion. [2]

Banks are (unsurprisingly) against this; the CEOs of Lloyds, Barclays, and HSBC have publicly begged Rachel Reeves not to. [3] But after deciding not to scrap the two-child benefit cap, it’s time for this government to show whose side they’re really on.

Introducing a windfall tax on banks would clearly signal the kind of change Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer promised to deliver and that millions of us desperately want to see, and help to prove that Labour aren’t in the pocket of big donors or beholden to corporate lobbyists from the City.

As the cost of living crisis rages on, a tax on banks is a much fairer place to start than raiding the accounts of ordinary savers or the pockets of disabled people.

Notes:

[1] The Mirror: Bank tax could cover cost of welfare U-turn AND scrapping two-child benefit cap

[2] Positive Money: How the government could reclaim the huge payouts to banks
[3] Financial Times: Lloyds Bank chief warns Rachel Reeves against higher taxes on City of London