The parties are trading blows on how to tax the banks Conservative leader David Cameron is expected to announce plans to tax banks - even if other countries decide against doing so.Mr Cameron will drop his condition that he would only introduce such a tax - which could raise billions of pounds - if other countries also did. But the Tories plan a much less painful tax if the UK does act alone, to avoid driving banks into exile. Labour has said it favours such a tax, but only with international agreement. But according to the Financial Times on Saturday, Chancellor Alistair Darling is to give his support to plans for a global tax on investment banks and institutions that pose a "systemic risk". BBC business editor Robert Peston said: "With the last Budget of this Parliament only a few days away, it was inevitable that the Tories and the government would trade blows on whether and how to levy a new tax on the banks." ROBERT PESTON The difference between the Tories and Labour is less wide than it may appear Read Robert Peston's blog He added that it was "a big shift for Alistair Darling to say that he favours a tax on some measure of the risks being taken by banks, as opposed to introducing an insurance premium on them to meet the costs of future bail-outs".[Read more...]