“Why are we taxing working people more than billionaires? Tax wealth, not work”
Former City trader and left-wing economist Gary Stevenson took down GB News host Camilla Tominey on BBC Question Time last night.
Asked what the solutions to plugging the UK’s economic deficit are, Stevenson said that the tax system needs to be “shifted”, to focus on taxing wealth, instead of making working people pay.
Stevenson said: “We have ordinary working people paying 30, 40, 50, 60% [tax], while people like the Duke of Westminster can inherit £10 billion and pay nothing.”
He said that the current system is already sucking wealth out of the middle class, “it’s already completely bankrupted the working class and it’ll bankrupt the government which is what we are seeing”.
The Youtuber and activist said that this will lead to a situation where “There will be poverty, broad poverty” and “no middle class left”.
“Tax the billionaires, of course you should,” he said, to a round of applause from the audience.
GB News host Camilla Tominey argued that in European countries such as France and Norway, they’ve tried to implement a wealth tax but had to scrap it as it has failed.
Stevenson responded to this stating, “Whenever people suggest this to me, I always think of the Conservatives second home stamp duty tax.”
He said that when it was introduced, he was surprised the Tories were taxing the rich, then he discovered there was an exemption if people bought seven homes or more at once, which the ex-Tory chancellor did.
Stevenson continued: “I understand it’s difficult to tax rich people because politicians are rich people, they’re funded by rich people and they put loopholes in the system that mean rich people don’t pay them, and it ends up being paid by working people.
“That doesn’t mean we don’t do it. If you don’t do it, working people will be poor.”
Clutching at straws, Tominey took a cynical swipe at trade unions, asking whether it could be guaranteed that wealth tax receipts go to the poor, not “public sector pay rises for train drivers already on good wages”.
People on social media have been praising Stevenson for his strong performance on Question Time. One user on X said: “Gary Stevenson doing God’s work on #bbcqt“.
Another commented: “The look on Camilla Tominey’s face is priceless. You can almost see the panic on her face as she thinks oh s*** how can I defend that.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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