Claim 71702d67Checked 09 Jul 2026
Weak EvidenceOn the evidence scale
“Without those profits, we can’t have the schools we need in this country.”
Reasoning & Evidence09 Jul 2026
The claim is only loosely supported. UK school funding is set through government allocations: the Dedicated Schools Grant provides revenue funding for schools, and DfE school funding statistics show the money is allocated by the Department for Education, i.e. from general public finances rather than from any single industry’s profits. HMRC also says its core purpose is to bring in revenue that funds the UK’s public services. Financial-sector activity does generate substantial tax receipts — HMRC reported £37.1 billion from the banking sector in 2023-24 — but HMRC’s own receipts data show that UK revenue comes from many sources, with income tax/NICs, VAT, and business taxes the biggest buckets. So profits from the City can be a contributor to the tax base, but the evidence does not show that they are necessary for the schools the UK needs, or that without them schools could not be funded. Sources: HMRC Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25; HMRC tax receipts and National Insurance contributions for the UK (annual bulletin); PAYE and corporate tax receipts from the banking sector (2024); House of Commons Library, Dedicated Schools Grant; DfE School funding statistics; ONS, Country and regional public sector finances, UK. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
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+ 60 search hits considered
| [1] | gov.uk |
| [2] | assets.publishing.service.gov.uk |
| [3] | commonslibrary.parliament.uk |
| [4] | gov.uk |