Barclays chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan has issued a stark warning to Chancellor Rachel Reeves, urging her not to introduce new levies that would “stifle competition and growth” in Britain’s financial sector.
Speaking in an interview with CNBC, Venkatakrishnan said taxing banks and investors more heavily risked “taxing growth out of existence,” just weeks before Reeves unveils her first Budget.
His remarks come amid speculation that the Chancellor could raise as much as £50 billion in extra taxes to plug a hole in the public finances. Think tanks close to Labour, including the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), have floated the idea of a windfall levy on banks, claiming lenders have enjoyed outsized benefits from the Bank of England’s money-printing programme during the financial crisis and Covid.
Venkatakrishnan pushed back, warning that a banking tax raid would ultimately mean fewer jobs and less lending to British businesses. “You need to encourage [growth] to expand, not tax it out of existence,” he said.
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