PRIME MINISTER Andy Burnham faced fresh calls to raise taxes on banking profits today after Barclays revealed massive 30 per cent rises in its bonus pot and pre-tax profits.

Corporate filings showed the bank put £1.3bn towards its bonus pool for the first half of the year — up from £1 billion last year.

Barclays reported that a 31 per cent annual rise in its pre-tax profits for the second quarter to £3.3bn had allowed it to announce new payouts for shareholders, including a £1bn share buy-back and £800m in dividends.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “This is not a ‘hard choice’. Barclays’ bonanza profits show that banks can easily afford to pay more tax. 

“Big banks like Barclays are raking it in while working people and local businesses are struggling. 

“High interest rates have been a boon for banks but have meant mortgage misery and higher bills for the rest of us.

“Andy Burnham has rightly pledged to prioritise tackling the cost-of-living crisis. 

“With the war in Iran rumbling on, energy prices are only going to rise — and households will need more support in the months ahead.

“This is a chance for the new prime minister and chancellor to show whose side they’re on.

“It’s time to increase the bank surcharge and tax banks to bring down energy bills.”

The union federation wants the government to use the money to pay for a social energy tariff that brings down energy bills by up to £559 a year for those on low and middle incomes.

Currently the bank surcharge is an additional 3 per cent corporation tax on the profits of banking companies above £100 million, which was reduced from 8 per cent in April 2023 by the Tories.

The TUC is calling for the government to increase the surcharge to raise up to £60 billion over the next four years, saying that even the bare minimum of reversing the Tory cuts and setting it at 8 per cent would raise £9bn over four years — enough to pay for its proposals for a social tariff.

End Fuel Poverty Coalition co-ordinator Simon Francis said: “From energy firms to big banks, the profits being posted by huge firms are built on the backs of people suffering with the cost-of-living crisis.

“It’s entirely right that the government should look at this and look at how excess profits could be used to help bring down energy bills.”

Green Party leader Zack Polanski said: “We’re living in rip-off Britain - where banks are making eye-watering profits while ordinary people can’t keep up with the soaring cost of rent, bills and essentials.

“There is plenty of wealth to go around in this country - if Andy Burnham is serious about giving people breathing space, he needs to take real action to stop money being hoarded at the top, and get it flowing around the economy.

“We should be putting people first - asking banks like Barclays to pay a little bit more tax so we can support families to make ends meet.”

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn MP, now leader of Your Party, said: “These numbers are absolutely obscene. Just like energy companies, big banks continue to rake it in while millions of people struggle to pay their rents, mortgages and bills. 

“A tax on banks is one of many measures the government should implement to redistribute wealth and power, alongside wealth taxes, rent controls and an end to privatisation of our public services. 

“That would be a good start to alleviate the grotesque levels of poverty, hunger and homelessness in this country. Here’s an idea: tax big banks to end food banks.”

A Momentum spokesperson said: “The Trades Union Congress is right. To genuinely reverse austerity, Labour must increase the surcharge on banks.

“A government that stands for people, not profit would do so. That is what real Labour values look like.”

Positive Money campaign group’s co-executive director Sara Hall said: “The case for taxing these unearned billions is obvious — the new Prime Minister and Chancellor should make this policy a reality in the Autumn Budget.

“Barclays’ enormous profits aren’t being driven by providing better products or services to customers, they’re the result of higher interest rates, which banks have reaped the rewards of without lifting a finger.

“And the bank isn’t using those profits to boost lending to small businesses or households — it’s using them to fund bigger payouts to shareholders, bigger bonuses for bankers, and to buy back its own shares in the hope of boosting their price.

“This is a bank whose CEO has suggested the government scrap pay rises for public-sector workers rather than tax its enormous profits.”