By Richard Burgon MP

While the living standards of millions have been thrown into crisis over the past decade, the UK’s wealthiest have seen their fortunes soar.

The numbers are staggering. Take the total wealth of UK billionaires: this has exploded from £246 billion in 2013 to £684 billion just a decade later.

That’s an increase of £120 million every single day over the past ten years – a vast windfall for the richest in society, while working people face stagnating wages, declining public services and record-breaking living costs.

This widening wealth gap is no accident. It’s the direct result of Tory policies, including cuts and austerity that have undermined the well-being of the majority while enriching those at the very top.

That’s why this week, ahead of the Autumn Budget, I presented a petition to Parliament—backed by over 50,000 supporters—calling for wealth taxes, not more cuts and austerity.

The wealth tax package I’m proposing targets those who have profited most in recent years, including through:

·        A 2% Wealth Tax on assets over £10 million—generating up to £24 billion annually to invest in our public services.

·        Equalizing Capital Gains Tax with Income Tax rates—so that the wealthy few who live off their investments are taxed at the same rates as ordinary workers, bringing in an additional £17 billion.

·        Ending subsidies to fossil fuel giants and closing loopholes in the oil and gas windfall tax—raising a further £4 billion.

Together, these measures would raise £45 billion each year, providing essential funding to rebuild our schools, hospitals and public infrastructure and to boost the incomes of millions of people struggling to make ends meet.

Public support for these wealth taxes is growing every day. One new poll found that a wealth tax on those with assets of over £10 million is backed by two-thirds of the public with just 12% opposed.

It’s also clear to the public that the budget cuts and austerity measures that helped cause this crisis in public services and living standards cannot be part of the solution.

Instead, if we truly want to support people, to rebuild our public services, and create a fairer society, we need transformative, progressive tax reform that makes the ultra-wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share.

Our new Labour government’s first budget in 15 years provides a crucial opportunity to break with austerity and set our society on a new path. Wealth taxes can ensure our Government has the resources needed to make a real difference to the lives of millions that we all want to see.

• You can add your name to Richard Burgon MP’s petition calling for Wealth Taxes, not more cuts, in the Autumn Budget here. 

Richard Burgon has been MP for Leeds East since 2015 and served as Shadow Secretary of State for Justice from 2016 to 2020.

Image: Official portrait of Richard Burgon MP. Source: https://members-api.parliament.uk/api/Members/4493/Portrait?cropType=ThreeFour,  licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.