JOHN McDONNELL condemned a £5.4 billion tax giveaway to the banks as “shameful” yesterday after figures exposed the sheer scale of government concessions to Britain’s biggest banks.

The shadow chancellor rounded on his Conservative counterpart Philip Hammond after the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) revealed that receipts from the bank levy — a tax on the value of all of the liabilities of the banks — are expected to decline every year over the course of the current parliament.

The penalty has been slashed despite the OBR showing the balance sheets of the big banks continuing to rise each year.