“No matter what the lobby groups who don’t want to tax wealth will tell us, it is not going to be a problem for wealthy people to pay that.”
Julia Davies, a member of Patriotic Millionaires UK, pushed back against right-wing claims that a wealth tax would be unfair, summing up why a wealth tax is needed and would not punish the super-rich.
Patriotic Millionaires UK, is a non-partisan group of millionaires who argue that the economic system should be reformed to end extreme wealth.
Speaking on Sunday Morning Live yesterday, Tom Clougherty, Research Director and Head of Tax at Thatcherite think tank The Institute of Economic Affairs, argued that people often support a wealth tax because they don’t understand how significant a 2% tax on wealth would be.
Freelance journalist Angela Epstein, who writes for the Daily Mail and Telegraph, said “I’m really sick of wealth being treated like a dirty word in this country” and said she thinks it’s “predicated on the politics of envy”.
In response, Davies, who would have to pay a 2% wealth tax, said: “Suggesting that asking for fair taxation of wealth is treating wealth as something that is a dirty word is just nonsensical.”
She said “What’s not fair is the concentration of wealth into the hands of fewer and fewer people in the UK.”
“It might sound like wealthy people are paying a lot in tax, that’s because they disproprionately have more of the wealth of the UK.”
Davies stressed that “asking for fair taxation of wealth is not punishing anyone. Asking working people to pay more national insurance and income tax, that is punishing people.”
Davies also pointed out that investment in the NHS has to come from somewhere, arguing that wealth is a “vastly untapped resource”.
The proposed wealth tax would introduce a 2% tax on wealth over £10 billion.
“No matter what the lobby groups who don’t want to tax wealth will tell us, it is not going to be a problem for wealthy people to pay that.”
A 2023 YouGov poll found that 78% of voters support an annual wealth tax on individuals with assets exceeding £10 million, including 77% of Conservative voters and 86% of Labour voters.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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