UNIONS urged Labour to show its promises are more than a slogan with a 35 per cent banking profit tax that would wipe away Britain’s financial black hole by raising £50 billion over four years.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak called on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to impose the windfall tax alongside increased levies on online gambling sites and assets above £10 million in her Autumn Budget.

He spoke to the Morning Star as new research showed significant support for a package of wealth taxes and taxes on financial institutions to fund public services and build a “fairer” country.

Mr Nowak vowed to use the TUC Congress, which opens in Brighton on Sunday, to urge ministers “to show what side they are on.”

He said: “I think it’s very clear to us that working class people, their families and communities are desperate for change.

“It’s equally clear that that change has been slow in coming and for far too many people change feels like a slogan rather than a lived reality.

“My overall message at conference to government will be to show what side they are on. They should show they are on the side of working people, their families and communities.”

Ministers should do this by delivering the Employment Rights Bill in full and at the Budget, “should be prepared to ask those who have done well, whether it's windfall profits in the banks, those with wealth in our country to pay a fairer share.”

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research think tank warned last month that Ms Reeves will have to raise taxes to plug a £51bn black hole in the public finances.

“Most people expect taxes to rise,” Mr Nowak said.

“We are very clear it’s those with the broadest shoulders who should be asked to make that commitment.

“If you look at the banks and financial institutions, big four banks made between nearly £46bn last year — a lot of that driven by the fact we are in a high interest rate environment.

“It’s not unreasonable to ask those banks and financial institutions to pay a windfall tax.

“If you put it up to 35 per cent — and banks would still have incredibly healthy profits — £50bn over four years and as our polling shows overwhelmingly popular with the British public, and including and importantly, most popular with people who are Labour to Reform voters, or interested in voting Reform.

“That would be on a 35 per cent surcharge on the banks which is the same level that government put on the energy companies, and if it was right to ask the energy companies to pay a windfall tax when they had unexpected profits, it’s right to ask the banks to do exactly the same.”

The TUC poll of more than 5,000 adults showed four out of five support a wealth tax package to help cut the NHS waiting list and to ensure schools have enough money for textbooks, equipment and basic repairs.

The union leader added that Labour governments “are best when they are ambitious.

“The public overwhelmingly want investment to deliver better services right across the country — whether it’s cutting NHS waiting lists so patients can get the prompt treatment they need or funding schools so our kids have the right books and resources.

“They want fair taxes too. People have had it with a system where those with the broadest shoulders don’t pull their weight.

“The public are behind tax reform so that the wealthy, banks and gambling companies pay more — they know this will deliver better services and a fairer society.”

Positive Money campaign group’s head of policy and advocacy Simon Youel told the Star: “A huge part of the issue for the public finances is the tens of billions of pounds a year the Bank of England is paying out to banks via interest on risk-free reserves, for which the Treasury is footing the bill.

“It should be a no-brainer for the government to claw back these windfalls with tax, which are otherwise filling the pockets of bank shareholders at the public’s expense.”