UK Bank Tax Jitters Grip City of London as Reeves’s Budget Nears

Britain’s Labour government has consistently assured City of London bankers that their corporate taxes won’t go up. Privately, executives are more worried than ever that ministers will hit them with a tax hike.

Major high street lenders and Wall Street names are bracing themselves for a rise in the so-called bank surcharge when Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves announces her next budget on Nov. 26. Executives have grown skeptical of pledges from Reeves and her Treasury officials to maintain the surcharge, which the Conservative government cut to 3% from 8% two years ago.

Bosses now think a tax hike ...