Protest against corporation tax rise outside TUC Congress on Tuesday morning

The putative chancellor will be handed the cheque, signed by the general public, to symbolise the amount of money he is taking out of Treasury coffers and giving to big business through the tax break for companies making the largest profits.
 
The 'Corporations in Need' stunt has been timed to coincide with a speech on Tuesday by UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, at TUC Congress. Sally Hunt will slam the government for prioritising billions of pounds in tax breaks for business at the same time as it slashes budgets for education and research**.
 
She will tell delegates in Manchester that increasing the level of corporation tax in the UK to the G7 countries' average would raise enough money to abolish all university tuition fees, and will highlight the need for business to pay its fair share for the numerous benefits it gets from UK higher education.
 
She will conclude by calling on college and university leaders to join with UCU and the National Union of Students (NUS) for the 'Fund our Future' march on Wednesday 10 November when thousands of staff and students from across the country will take to the streets of London to march cuts to adult, further and higher education.
 
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, will say: 'The government wants us to believe we are in it together, but one of its first moves was to slash tax for the companies enjoying the biggest profits. UK corporation tax is already lower than in the US, France, Germany, Japan and Canada, yet George Osborne wants to reduce it further.
 
'UK businesses rely on the knowledge and the ingenuity of the graduates produced by our universities. They depend on the skills and the training offered by our colleges. And they get it for next to nothing. By increasing corporation tax to just the G7 average we would raise sufficient funds to cover university fees.
 
'For more than a century, the pledge made by each generation to its successor was to expand learning and increase opportunity. Our new political leaders appear ready and willing to rip up that covenant. I call upon college and university heads to join with us and NUS in marching against the devastating cuts to further and higher education.'

Notes

* Directions to event

** For more on the union's opposition to the corporation tax cut visit: Budget's billion pound tax giveaways make mockery of 'we are all in this together' claim, says UCU