Pressure is growing on the government to tax wealth more.
This week 30 MPs wrote to the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, urging her to implement a wealth tax on the richest families in the UK.
The MPs, in a letter organised by our allies Green New Deal Rising, propose a 2% annual tax on wealth of over £10 million. This would raise £24 billion a year, they say. This is the same wealth tax proposal that we campaign on.
Our friends Patriotic Millionaires also used our wealth tax proposals in an advertising campaign in The Metro this week.
They took out a front page advert in the Metro on Wednesday, which included our logo. We joined them outside the Treasury to hand them out (see photo above).
The advert urged the Chancellor to tax the super-rich to invest in public services.
It’s hugely encouraging to see MPs and progressive organisations getting behind our tax reform proposals.
Public back higher taxes on rich
It shows we are making huge strides towards convincing the public, and politicians, to tax wealth more – and new polling this week from the Trade Unions Congress confirms this.
The research shows 62% of voters are in favour of asking those “with the broadest shoulders” being asked to pay more taxes.
The public, on balance, know that more money must be raised at the Budget to restore public services – and this should come from the best off.
We’ve just concluded fascinating new research with a focus group of swing voters – the research supports taxing wealth more to better fund public services.
Polling company Survation recruited thirty members of the public who voted for Labour at the last election, but who had previously voted for the Conservatives or SNP. They were asked their views on taxes and public spending.
Two thirds said they would be more likely to back Starmer’s party again if they increased taxes to pay for public services.
Raising taxes on the richest
It seems the government may be becoming more aware of these public attitudes – and moving in the right direction on tax and spending.
According to Sky News the chancellor Rachel Reeves is looking to raise up to £40 billion in new revenue at the Budget.
This is a big sum of money that would be put to work to start fixing public services – and invested in the country’s future.
It’s rumoured the money could be raised through a combination of different tax rises – from closing inheritance tax loopholes to raising tax rates on income from wealth, such as capital gains tax.
Other less progressive options being discussed included adding National Insurance to employer pension contributions.
We’d applaud the government if they follow through on these plans. Investment is desperately needed in the NHS and public services, and taxing the wealth of the very richest is a fair way to raise the money.
Getting in the media
We’ve had a busy week pushing our tax reform proposals in the media ahead of the Budget.
On Monday I was on GBNews debating Jacob Rees Mogg.
I made the case that the Chancellor will be right to raise taxes at the Budget – provided that they overall fall on those with the broadest shoulders.
Rachael, our head of advocacy, was on LBC arguing that unfair tax loopholes must be closed.
She was also on Times Radio arguing that we should tax wealth more, rather than work.
As the Budget approaches we’re using every opportunity to get on TV and radio to get our wealth tax proposals across. I’ll share more coverage with you in the coming weeks.
Convincing MPs on tax reform
This week we were also busy inside Parliament.
On Wednesday we ran an event with Patriotic Millionaires UK explaining to MPs how they could reform our tax system – by taxing wealth more and closing unfair loopholes – to raise more money for struggling public services.
It was a lively panel discussion and several MPs joined the conversation.
Following the event we were able to have some extremely useful one-to-one conversations with MPs about our proposals.