Trade union boss among Chancellor’s appointments to Bank of England board

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The boss of a leading trade union calling for higher taxes on banks’ profits has been appointed by the Chancellor to the Bank of England’s board.

Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), will take on a non-executive director position on a four-year term.

Refinitiv founder David Craig and top City investment manager Hanneke Smits have also been appointed with four-year terms by Chancellor John Healey.

Mr Nowak was a former call centre worker and has been a trade unionist throughout his career, before being appointed the TUC’s general secretary in 2022 and taking over from Baroness Frances O’Grady after a decade at the helm.

The TUC represents 47 unions and 5.3 million workers in the UK.

He will be stepping into Baroness O’Grady’s shoes again when she leaves her role as non-executive director on the Bank’s board.

Recently, Mr Nowak has been leading the TUC’s calls to the Chancellor to increase taxes on the profits of Britain’s banks, arguing that the money raised could help bolster cost-of-living support for households.

Mr Nowak said on Wednesday: “Higher interest rates have meant mortgage misery and bigger bills for the rest of us, but the big banks are raking it in.

“Taxing bank profits to cut bills is plain common sense.”

The Court of the Bank of England, the official name of the board, is responsible for overseeing the central bank’s strategy, governance, budget and risk framework. It is separate to the Bank of England’s team that sets interest rates.

The new appointees have said they have not engaged in any party political activity in the last five years.

Mr Healey said: “These appointments strengthen the Court at a critical moment for the UK economy, providing deep and varied experience to support the Bank in delivering its core missions of monetary and financial stability.”

Mr Nowak’s appointment prompted criticism from the Tories, with shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith saying: “The last thing our country needs is a trade union leader helping to run the Bank of England.

“Labour are taking us back to the 1970s with their high-tax, high-spend agenda – just as Burnham’s own former economic adviser Andy Haldane admitted.”

Deputy leader of Reform UK Richard Tice said the appointment was “staggering”, adding: “Our socialist Chancellor has dished out a big Bank of England finance job to a socialist union boss who knows nothing about finance.”

A TUC spokesperson said: “Paul Nowak had agreed with the BoE in advance of his appointment that he would be donating all his fees to charity.

“He looks forward to helping bringing the perspective of working people into the work of the BoE.

“TUC General secretaries have been appointed to the court by both Labour and Conservative chancellors.”

It is understood Mr Nowak has never accepted payment for any of his appointments to public bodies.

He will be donating his payment to two charities – the Bank Workers Charity and Everton in the Community.