“By taxing extreme wealth… we could have built a society where wealth is used not to hoard yachts and mansions, but to guarantee dignity, opportunity, and security for every single person.”
By Rebecca Long-Bailey MP
For too long, Britain’s economy has been rigged in favour of the wealthy few. Vast fortunes have been amassed through property, land, financial assets, and inherited wealth, while ordinary people struggle to keep their heads above water. Nurses are using food banks. Teachers are paying for classroom books and pens from their own wages. Councils are being forced to cut vital services. Meanwhile, billionaires saw their wealth soar even during the pandemic. This is not just unfair – it is unsustainable.
The case for a wealth tax is not about envy. It is about justice, stability, and the proper funding of the bread-and-butter services that hold our society together. A fair economy is one in which everyone contributes according to their ability, and where those with the broadest shoulders carry the greatest burden.
At present, the opposite is true. Working people are taxed heavily compared with their wages, while accumulated wealth – often unearned – is barely touched.
Our tax system is riddled with loopholes and imbalances that favour wealth over work. A cleaner pays income tax and National Insurance on every pound they earn. Yet an investor who makes money by speculating on stocks or property pays lower rates of tax on capital gains. A young family scrimps and saves for years for a modest deposit, but a landlord with a large portfolio can watch their property values balloon without lifting a finger, often paying less tax proportionately than the very tenants who fund their mortgages.
This is not efficiency. It is exploitation. The UK has one of the highest levels of wealth inequality in Europe. According to the Resolution Foundation, the richest 1% hold more wealth than the bottom 80% combined. Without reform, inequality will only deepen.
I have been following the work of a group called Patriotic Millionaires UK. They are exactly what the name suggests: a large group of millionaires in the UK who believe that paying a fair amount of tax to make your country the best it can be is an act of patriotism. Indeed, polling this year showed that most millionaires feel this way too: 80% of UK millionaires support a 2% tax on wealth over £10million and 72% think Government should raise taxes on the super-rich to reduce taxes on everyone else.
The group has shown how targeted reforms could transform our public finances without squeezing working people further. Here are some of the most significant proposals:
- 2% annual wealth tax on assets above £10 million: affecting only around 20,000 people, it could raise £24 billion a year.
- Equalising capital gains tax with income tax and closing loopholes: fair treatment of income from wealth could raise £16.7 billion a year.
- Applying National Insurance to investment income: taxing dividends and rental income like wages could raise £10.2 billion a year.
- Inheritance tax reform: closing the reliefs used by the wealthiest estates could raise £1.4 billion a year.
- Closing non-dom loopholes: ensuring the richest do not game the system could bring in £1 billion a year.
- 4% levy on corporate share buybacks: a measure targeting big corporations diverting profits to shareholders could raise £2 billion a year.
- Ending fossil fuel subsidies and tightening the windfall tax: would raise another £4.2 billion a year.
- Fairer taxes on private jets and luxury flights: up to £700 million a year.
In total, that is well over £60 billion every year. This is all money sitting on the table — money we desperately need to fund the NHS, schools, local councils, and the social safety net.
We know that the Government inherited a dire financial situation from the Tories, a gaping hole in the public finances that must be filled. But we must be honest : cuts are not an inevitability. They are political choices. And they are the wrong choices.
By taxing extreme wealth, we could have avoided cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance. We could have avoided attacks on disability benefits. And we could have built a society where wealth is used not to hoard yachts and mansions, but to guarantee dignity, opportunity, and security for every single person.
The choice we face could not be clearer. Do we accept a Britain where pensioners face shivering in their homes while billionaires cruise in private jets untaxed? A Britain where disabled people see cuts in income while landlords and speculators see their wealth balloon tax-free? Or do we choose fairness, justice, and decency?
Wealth taxes are not only sensible – they are urgently needed. They are the key to unlocking the resources required to build an NHS fit for the future, deliver schools that inspire, create green jobs, and ensure that no child grows up in poverty. Public services are not luxuries. They are the foundation of a fair and decent society. When we invest in healthcare, education, housing, and clean energy, we are not only providing dignity and security for all – we are creating the conditions for long-term prosperity. They also give us the chance to protect the benefits and allowances that give our people dignity in times of need, from winter fuel payments to disability support.
Britain is not broke. The problem is that wealth is hoarded at the very top, shielded from taxation, while working people are made to pay the price of crisis after crisis. That is a political failure over many decades — and it is one we can and must put right as a Labour Government.
- Rebecca Long-Bailey is the MP for Salford and Eccles and a regular contributor for Labour Outlook. You can follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter/X.
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“A cleaner pays income tax and National Insurance on every pound” of income, and so should we all.
National Insurance should be paid on every pound of income, earned or unearned, above a basic level.