LONDON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Britain's opposition LabourParty is likely to extend the reach of its planned levy onfinancial transactions if elected, its would-be finance ministersaid on Thursday, as he endorsed a report looking at ways tobetter fund public services.
John McDonnell was responding to a new report byIntelligence Capital on the possible scope of such a tax. Labourhas previously backed the idea of a financial transactions taxon certain types of assets and trades.
"All you want to hear from me is whether we are going toadopt the policy: yes" he said at the launch of the report."They have come up with proposals which I think areunchallengeable in terms of how they can implement what wewant."
The left-wing opposition party held a series of meetingswith top finance executives in 2017, setting out how it wouldlevy taxes on one of the world's biggest financial tradingcentres if it won power from the Conservative Party.
McDonnell, the second most powerful man in the Labour Party,said on Thursday they were still honing their plans for anyfuture election but said a Labour government had the chance tolead the debate on a global movement to tax financialtransactions.
Labour has previously proposed new taxes on transactions inderivatives and bonds. The report by Intelligence Capital saidthe proposed tax could apply to the wholesale foreign exchangemarket, including spot and derivatives, interest ratederivatives and commodities.
It proposed taxing end user purchasers who are tax residentin Britain.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he wants anelection to break the impasse over Brexit but opposition partiesincluding Labour have refused to agree until they can guaranteethat Britain will not first leave the European Union without adeal on Oct. 31.
That means an election could come later this year.
UK Finance, a trade body for the banking and financeindustry, said the tax would put a levy on growth and said at atime of such uncertainty for business, policymakers should focuson supporting the industry to grow and employ more people.(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; writing by Kate Holton; editingby William James and Toby Chopra)