Claim 595db424Checked 21 Jul 2026
PlausibleOn the evidence scale
“Without those profits, the country cannot have the schools and hospitals it needs.”
Reasoning & Evidence21 Jul 2026
The claim asserts a causal and counterfactual link: profits generated by the City of London financial sector → tax revenue → funding for schools and hospitals, such that without those profits the country "cannot have" the schools and hospitals it needs.
The evidence supports a real and material contribution, but not the strong "necessary condition" framing. According to the PwC/City of London Corporation total tax contribution study, the UK financial services sector paid an estimated £63 billion in tax in 2011, equivalent to about 12% of total UK tax receipts — the largest contribution of any single sector. UK Whole of Government Accounts for 2010-11 show total taxation revenue of roughly £515 billion, while public spending on health was about £121 billion and education about £91 billion. Thus financial-sector taxes could notionally cover a substantial fraction (roughly a quarter to a third) of combined health and education spending. The mechanism is sound: profits generate corporation tax and underpin employment taxes (PAYE/NICs), which flow into the consolidated fund used to finance all public services.
However, the claim is phrased as necessity — "without those profits we cannot have the schools and hospitals we need." The evidence does not establish that City profits are indispensable. The UK tax base is diversified across income tax, VAT, other corporation taxes, excise duties, and non-financial sectors; the country ran a large deficit in 2010-11 even with financial-sector taxes, and could in principle replace some of that revenue through other taxes, borrowing, or reprioritisation. The financial sector was the largest single contributor but accounted for only around one in nine pounds of tax revenue, and roughly 9-10% of GDP. So while the loss of those profits would create a significant fiscal gap, it would not strictly preclude funding schools and hospitals.
The core causal link — City profits materially help fund public services — is well-evidenced and credible. The stronger assertion of indispensability is not supported: the cause is a significant contributor, but not established as a decisive or irreplaceable driver.
Sources: PwC/City of London Corporation, "Finance sector paid $97 bln UK taxes in 2011" via Reuters (https://www.reuters.com/article/financial-britain-taxes/finance-sector-paid-97-bln-uk-taxes-in-2011-pwc-idUKL6E7NF2UJ20111216/); City AM, "In comes tax" (https://www.cityam.com/comes-tax/); HM Treasury/Whole of Government Accounts 2010-11 (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7c3711e5274a25a91413cc/whole_of_government_accounts_31-03-2011.pdf); HM Treasury Public Expenditure Statistical Bulletin April 2012 (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7c21a1ed915d1b3a3079b4/natstats_statistical_bulletin_april2012.pdf); HMRC, "Pay As You Earn and Corporation Tax receipts from the banking sector" (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7ce75ce5274a2c9a484d2f/intro.pdf); Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin 2011 Q3, "Measuring financial sector output and its contribution to UK GDP" (https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/quarterly-bulletin/2011/q3/measuring-financial-sector-output-and-its-contribution-to-uk-gdp).
From article
The pressure of being a market-maker in a busy market, when you’ve got people all around you screaming and shouting at you and you’re dealing in numbers and it’s like that, that, that, that – that’s pretty pressurised. That’s why it’s a young man’s job. You don’t get many 50-year-old money-brokers: they can’t do it any more. Goodness me! It’s not an easy job. Not an easy job.
When I joined the City, it was the dying days of a gentlemen’s club: magnificent, socially wonderful but going nowhere – there was still a whiff of P G Wodehouse about people who toddled off to the City all day and did things that nobody understood at all. But what I saw in the Eighties and Nineties was London becoming in many ways a genuine global centre for entrepreneurial flair, for innovation, for very hard work – and for creating profits. And without those profits we can’t have the schools and hospitals we need in this country – it’s very, very simple. I am absolutely not conflicted in any way at all about the fact that what we did, overall, was for a social good.
Sources opened