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A windfall tax on the profits of Britain’s biggest banks could bring in nearly £15bn for public spending, according to research.

Analysis of Britain’s ‘Big Four’ banks – Barclays, NatWest, Lloyds and HSBC – shows they are on track to make an estimated £44.7bn profit in 2024- more than four times as much as they made in 2020, before interst rates started to rise.

Last year, these four banks paid £26.8 billion (60%) of that profit to shareholders, according to research and campaign group Positive Money. 

Banks currently pay a special surcharge on profits, which was introduced after the last financial crisis in recognition of the risks banks’ activities pose to the wider economy, though the last government slashed this surcharge by 60%, from 8% to 3%.

But if the Bank Surcharge was raised to 35%, in line with the Energy Profits Levy on the windfall profits of oil and …