Burnham Courts Union Leaders as City Fights Bank Tax
Andy Burnham met leaders of Labour’s eleven affiliated unions at Unison’s headquarters, a formal stage in a leadership process that could make him Prime Minister by 20 July as the sole declared candidate. The meeting exposed the fault line over his choice of chancellor: Unite’s Sharon Graham warned that Ed Miliband in No 11 would “put a noose around the neck of job creation”, while the TUC pressed the case for a bank tax it says would raise £9bn over four years.
Union support is not merely symbolic: a leadership candidate needs the backing of three affiliates or 5% of constituency parties alongside a fifth of Labour MPs, so these meetings are the electorate at work. The bank-tax skirmish previews the first Budget fight — banks posted record profits in 2025, with NatWest’s £7.7bn the highest since the bailout era, while UK Finance counters that London’s 46.4% total bank tax rate already far exceeds New York’s 27.9%. Burnham has promised households “a bit extra now to help with rising costs”, which must be paid for somehow. Watch the chancellor appointment: it will define the government before a single Bill is published.