In John Healey’s first budget this week, we will finally get a sense of the economic policies that will deliver Andy Burnham’s pledge to end neoliberalism. Capital gains tax equalised with income tax? A genuine wealth tax on those sitting on over £10m?
Even the briefed increase in the banking surcharge only takes us back to where it was until the Conservatives cut it in 2023. We can cross our fingers for trailed policies on supporting high streets, financial devolution and longer-term investment, but there is still more than a whiff of trickle-down economics in the air. Poll after poll shows that the British public overwhelmingly supports wealth taxes on the super-rich – including three in five Reform-leaning voters.
We know that wealth inequality – with the richest 50 families in the UK possessing more wealth than half of the UK population – is weakening our economy, eroding our social fabric and undermining our democracy. Just last year, Burnham, then mayor of Greater Manchester, explicitly acknowledged that we have “overtaxed labour and undertaxed wealth”. So what on earth is going on?
To solve this paradox, our team at Tax Justice UK joined forces with researchers at the University of Strathclyde to go straight to the source. We interviewed 30 politicians across Westminster, Holyrood and the Senedd between February and July 2026, while Keir Starmer was prime minister. We made sure, in particular, that we spoke to every faction of the Labour party in Westminster – as the party in government and the party we would expect to be predisposed to higher taxes on the super-rich, its opinions inevitably garner more interest.
The findings offer a rare glimpse into the hidden machinery of British politics. They suggest that the barrier to taxing extreme wealth is a deeply entrenched pattern of political fear, economic uncertainty, institutional capture and parliamentary self-preservation. And while these interviews took place under the former leadership, our conversations with MPs since suggest that, unless Burnham commits to higher taxes on wealth, the same barriers do hold.
The problem doesn’t start in parliament. Far from the green benches, a hostile climate is carefully cultivated to make taxing wealth seem undesirable. A billionaire-owned media apparatus relentlessly pushes scare stories, successfully tricking ordinary homeowners into thinking a “wealth tax” targets their modest family homes rather than offshore holdings and multimillion-pound assets.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
