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“We were elected just over a year ago now on the promise of change, and we have to fulfil that promise,” Whittome, member for Nottingham East, told Big Issue.
“I don’t think a wealth tax is going to be a silver bullet, [but] the Labor government needs to demonstrate whose side we’re on, not just by saying whose side we’re on, but by actually enacting policies that prove it. And I think wealth taxes are one of those policies.”
Whittome warned that “criminal levels of inequality” will drive people towards Nigel Farage’s right-wing politics.
“Our task over the next just over three and a half years now, is to prove to people that a Labour government can and will improve people’s lives. Otherwise, the very real risk is that people vote Reform at the next election, and we know what the consequences of that will be for public services, for workers and for people who are marginalised.”
The gap in total wealth between the top 10% and bottom 10% in the UK increased by 48% between 2011 and 2019.
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According to research published by the Resolution Foundation earlier this month, a typical worker would have to save 52 years’ worth of total earnings – £1.3 million in total – to move from the middle to the top of the wealth distribution.
Young people “want to just have the same opportunities that people had 50 years ago”, 22-year-old Amelia Abass told Big Issue.
“We want to be able to buy a house after years of working hard. We want to be able to go into the NHS, get surgery, be cured. We want to just do the normal stuff that people have been able to do for years, but we’re not able to do anymore because the richest people, their assets are building up so high and they’re not getting taxed.”
A single mum of a three-year-old boy, Amelia now lives in social housing – but it’s been a long journey to get there.
“My whole pregnancy was lived out in an emergency bed and breakfast full of mould, and now my son has quite severe lung issues,” she said. “I’ve been lucky enough to get housing, and I’m here advocating for all those people who haven’t been as lucky as I have, and who 100% deserve a house.”
“Keir Starmer says there’s not enough money for social housing. There is plenty of money. They just need to grow some balls and tax the richest.”
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As of 2023, the wealth of the UK’s 50 richest families exceeded that of 34.1 million people – more than half the population. This half of the population own just 9% of the country’s total wealth.
What is a wealth tax?
There are many different proposals for a wealth tax. One popular policy suggestion is an annual levy of around 2% on wealth in excess of £10m. According to A University of Warwick tax simulator, that could raise around £24 billion a year.
According to YouGov polling earlier this year, two thirds of voters support this kind of measure.
Eighteen-year-old Curtis said that a suite of different wealth taxes could “tackle inequality”. Previously a member of the Labour Party, between the ages of 14 and 16, he has since joined the Green Party.
“We’re trying to prioritise wealth taxes, not just a [single] wealth tax. Obviously, you have the flagships, you have the capital gains tax, you have the 2% on all assets over £10m. But there are so many more things which need to be done,” he told Big issue.
“It’s a solution for the future. It’s a solution for the present, and it’s a solution for the next generation.”
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Rachel Reeves previously pledged not to raise any of the three big revenue-raising taxes – income tax, national insurance and VAT – at the budget. But a declining growth forecast means that tax increases of some kind are likely at next month’s fiscal event.
Speculation has swirled around a new “mansion tax” on properties worth £2m or more as well as a 1p increase on the top 45p rate of income tax. Other suggestions include equalising of capital gains tax rates with taxes on employment income; currently, passive income from wealth is taxed more lightly than income from work (the average tax rate on wealth is 4%; on income it is 33%).
Ash, a 17-year-old member of the Green Party, said many people in their generation feel as though the future is “hopeless.”
“Pretty much our schools are underfunded. Our teachers are having to buy resources out of their own pocket. The climate crisis is worsening every single day, and housing is near unaffordable. All of this is happening while the super rich’s wealth has exploded and our tax system does nothing to take the fair share that they should be given,” they said.
“So we’re here to tell Rachel, if she has a choice today, she can either side with us, regular people, normal workers, students, doctors, or she can side with the millionaires and billionaires.”
According to the most recent YouGov polling, some 30% of young people aged 18-24 would vote for Labour if an election were held tomorrow – down from a high of 78% in October 2023. A third would vote Green, a vote share that has been steadily increasing over recent months. Around 9% would vote Reform.
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Would a wealth tax convince young people to vote for Starmer’s party? Not for Ash, a card-carrying Green Party member.
“I would say no, because there’s other issues as well that need to be addressed, the climate they’re not doing enough… while a wealth tax would be a step in the right direction, it’s simply not enough. It’s just the starting point.”
But for 23 year-old Naroa Hammerson, it could sway her vote.
“Yes, 100% for me, I don’t care who it is, but we need the wealth taxes, and we need to have the racist rhetoric stop because a very small minority are investing a lot of money to make us think that it’s immigrants, to make us think that it’s disabled people, to make us think that it’s people scrounging… but the biggest abusers of the system are billionaires.”
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