Could a wealth tax convince young people to vote Labour?

As the budget approaches, pressure is mounting on chancellor Rachel Reeves to introduce a so-called “wealth tax”.

The chancellor reportedly told the budget watchdog – the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) – that she planned on raising income tax earlier this month. It was then reported in the Financial Times that she had decided against raising income tax rates.

Campaigners like Tax Justice UK have urged her to introduce a wealth tax instead. It found that a tax of 2% on assets over £10 million could raise up to £24 billion a year – voiding the need for costly increases to the taxes ordinary working people pay.

Read more:

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• UK’s tax system lets the wealthy off the hook, report finds – and traps Northerners in inequality

Research shows that the combined wealth of the 50 richest families in the UK is more than that of more than 34 million people, more than half the population, and that two-thirds of voters back measures to tax extreme wealth.

Critics, however, warn that a wealth tax could encourage tax avoidance or drive wealthy individuals and businesses to move money or assets abroad – though LSE research has debunked this, finding that taxes aren’t a significant driver in decision-making about migratory decisions amongst the ultra-wealthy. Administrative difficulties, such as accurately valuing complex assets like art, shares, or private businesses, are perhaps a more genuine hurdle.

We were on the ground at a Green New Deal Rising demonstration on the steps of the Treasury to ask protesters what they thought of a wealth tax – and what they’d do with the money.

Why should we have a wealth tax?

Ash, 17
“It shouldn’t have to be the working people who have to pay the extra tax. It should be the millionaires and billionaires who are hoarding their wealth in assets that should be paying their fair share. For example, Rishi Sunak, who is as rich as the king, paid the same tax rate as a nurse. It’s not right. 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.”

Amelie, 22
“We are… a group of young people who want to just have the same opportunities that people had 50 years ago. 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.”

Curtis, 18
“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. It’s not a be all, end all.”

I used to be part of the Labour Party from the ages of 14 to 16, and it was the point that even with their promises before the general election, I could tell that something was wrong. Labour is not the same party that it was before 2024 before 2019. You have people in the Labour Party who think that they can stay in and make the change from the inside. But it is not an issue of membership. It is not an issue of MPs. It is an issue of the Labour institution.

Emily, 26
“[I’d spend the money on] a bus system. Particularly where I’m from, in Cardiff, it’s a capital city, you’d think that we’d have reliable bus services, but they don’t run early enough for nursing staff to get to work or late enough for hospitality staff to get home. And in a climate where we’re trying to reduce our carbon footprint and not driving as much investment needs to go into those public services so people can get to work.”

Naroa, 23
“Yes, 100%” (asked if a wealth tax would convince her to vote Labour). “I don’t care who it is, but we need the wealth taxes.”

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