Taxes

Brian Leishman Excerpts

Tuesday 15th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Brian Leishman (Alloa and Grangemouth) (Lab)]

We live in a country where wealth is hoarded by the few while poverty is the fate of the many. Yes, the Government have taken some welcome steps, addressing non-dom status and imposing VAT on private school fees, and I make no apology for being ideological about that. Those are steps in the right direction, but, as has been shown by reforms to welfare, they are far from enough to stop cuts. The truth is that these policies do not come close to tackling the grotesque level of inequality in our country, nor will they generate the revenue that is needed to repair the failed ideology of austerity, privatisation and no small amount of political cowardice in the face of corporate greed.

The 2010s were the decade in which the super-rich won. They were handed tax breaks, were shielded by loopholes, and watched their wealth explode while wages stagnated and services crumbled. Millionaires and billionaires flourished. As I said in the earlier debate this afternoon, the fact that in one of the richest economies in the world millions of people in full-time work are relying on food banks to survive is a national disgrace. They go to work, they do their shifts, and still they are left to rely on the charity of strangers to get by.

This did not happen by accident. It is the result of deliberate political choices: austerity, privatisation, suppressed wages and a tax system rigged in favour of the ultra-wealthy. Even now, with Labour in power, we are being told to temper our ambition. How can we do that when there is a 13-year difference in life expectancy between the richest and the poorest in Scotland, and when thousands of children are growing up cold, hungry and facing an uncertain future?

However, there is an alternative to relentless cuts. There is an alternative to balancing the books on the backs of the poorest. There is an alternative to managed decline as we watch the state become bankrupt both financially and morally. That alternative is genuinely progressive taxation alongside investment in people and communities. I find common ground with my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton West (Phil Brickell), in that I also support equalising capital gains tax with income tax. Currently, many who earn their living through work are taxed more than those who profit by sitting on their wealth. Equalising those rates could raise an additional £12 billion a year. My hon. Friend and I do, however, disagree about the introduction of an annual wealth tax.

Since coming to this place, I have campaigned for the introduction of a 2% annual wealth tax on those with net assets over £10 million. This single policy could raise £24 billion a year, and the notion that the wealthy will flee en masse if we ask them to contribute fairly is a tired and dishonest argument. Even among the ultra-wealthy, there is a recognition that inequality has spiralled out of control. Many are willing to contribute more, as is confirmed by the work of Tax Justice UK and Patriotic Millionaires, but the Government must have the courage to do it.

When we invest in public services, when we lift people up, we build a fairer country and a stronger economy. Children do better at school when they are fed, housed and supported. Workers are more productive when they are not spending every hour worried about how they will make ends meet. Families are stronger when the welfare state works for them, not against them. We have to find new and just ways to fund welfare, to fund the green transition, to fund public services and to rebuild the country. The labour movement was not built to tinker around the edges; it was built to transform, and if this Government are serious about real change—the change that we promised—we must be bolder than we have been so far. Redistribution of wealth and power for the benefit of workers and communities, and wider society, should always be the driving mission of any real Labour Government.