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Interest rates have risen, yet the CMA has found that higher rates have not always been fully passed on to consumers. At the same time, taxpayers will cover around £18bn a year in Bank of England losses for the rest of this parliament, largely because of the way quantitative easing was implemented.

That’s why we’ve argued for a temporary, targeted levy on banks to help claw back some of those taxpayer losses. Crucially, there is precedent for this approach: Margaret Thatcher’s government introduced a 2.5% tax on bank deposits in 1981 after profits surged following higher interest rates.