SOCIALISTS joined thousands calling for a windfall tax on banking profits today after the Bank of England imposed its 14th interest rate hike in a row, raising fears of a recession.

MPs John McDonnell, Richard Burgon and Angela Eagle DBE are among more than 6,000 people who have signed a petition by campaign group Positive Money, urging Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to implement the tax.

Positive Money activists protested outside the national bank as it raised the rate from 5 to 5.25 per cent, leaving millions worse off amidst the cost-of-living crisis.

The group said: “Economists at the bank have been telling workers to show wage restraint.

“But it turns out that every senior official at the bank – except for governor Andrew Bailey – got a pay rise.

“We’re tired of the hypocrisy! It’s time to squeeze private profits, not people’s wallets!”

One protester, 60-year-old Mike Jackson, said: “It’s a disgrace that the rest of the country is suffering from the cost-of-living crisis, and yet big businesses, including the banks, are making record profits.

“This is just completely unacceptable. We need to tax the banks; they need to pay their share of all this.”

Positive Money co-executive director Fran Boait added: “The main winners are banks, whose profits have flourished thanks to higher rates.”

Mr McDonnell said the BoE announcement “highlights the bankruptcy of the political economy of the UK Establishment.

“Forcing a potential recession on an already struggling economy with all the suffering it will cause is reminiscent of 18th-century medicine using leeches,” the former shadow chancellor said.

Mr Burgon said: “More interest rate hikes are not the way to tackle inflation and will cause misery for millions.

“Instead the government should tackle the real causes of inflation.

“That means price caps on essentials and an excess-profits tax on those firms hiking prices just to boost profits.”

The Bank of England admitted inflation is falling but was being pushed upwards by the “crystallising” risks posed by greater-than-expected private-sector wage rises.

It said interest rates were “weighing on economic activity,” predicting gross domestic product (GDP) would remain sluggish for many years to come.

Food price inflation “remains extremely high” but was expected to fall to around 10 per cent by the end of the year as lower input prices make their way down the supply chain.

Unite union general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Inflation remains high, not because of pay increases but as a result of rampant profiteering and ‘greedflation,’ with the UK’s top 350 companies rubbing their hands while raking in an average increase in profit margins of 89 per cent.

“Until profiteering is tackled there can be no respite from continuing inflation.”

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak slammed the Tory government for “flirting with a recession.”

He said: “Make no mistake. The Chancellor is sitting on his hands while the economy runs into a wall and it will be working people who pay the price.

“Setting us on course for another economic shock is reckless – not responsible.”

The Institute for Public Policy Research warned “interest rates might well be more than a percentage point too high now” as the bank was “already overdoing it.”

Mr Hunt said “sticking to the plan” would bring inflation to “below 3 per cent in a year’s time without the economy falling into a recession.”

His Labour counterpart Rachel Reeves said: “Responsibility for this crisis lies at the door of the Conservatives that crashed the economy and left working people worse off, with higher mortgages, higher food bills and higher taxes” but did not comment on the interest rate rise.