After cuts in Labour’s proposed welfare reform bill caused uproar, many of the party’s supporters insist it’s time for a different approach. Rather than cutting the benefits bill or public spending, why not tax the wealthiest more? It’s a question Keir Starmer was asked in PMQs, and he replied by saying it wasn’t possible to “tax our way to growth”.
The millionaire Dale Vince disagrees. A former new-age traveller who made his money in green energy and has donated to Just Stop Oil, he is part of the Patriotic Millionaires organisation who think it is high time people like them are asked to increase their contributions. “There’s a whole bunch of us. We’re all saying the same thing, that we can afford to pay more tax. Rich people should pay more tax, and we can use that money to reduce inequality in our country.”
The tax expert and economics professor Arun Advani explains how a wealth tax could work and what the dangers could be. Would it send millionaires fleeing from the UK – and would that matter? And what other levers are at the government’s disposal?