Chancellor failing to cancel ‘tax giveaway’ to banks, says Labour

John McDonnell accuses Philip Hammond of handing Britain's biggest banks a rebate by not reversing cuts to the bank levy

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has accused Philip Hammond of failing to cancel a "tax giveaway" by his predecessor to Britain's biggest banks, worth more than 1bn this year.

In his summer budget after the 2015 general election, the then chancellor George Osborne announced deep cuts to the bank levy, which was introduced after the financial crisis and charged according to the size of banks' balance sheets.