Second richest man in world is given as example of why UK wealth tax won't work

'If you privation to turn taxes connected the wealthiness broadside we person got a batch of wealthiness taxes already, similar inheritance tax, superior gains tax, stamp duty. Sort retired those taxes is the archetypal mode you officially commencement taxing wealth' - Torsten Bell, caput of the Resolution Foundation deliberation tank

One of Labour's rising stars has jumped to the defence of Chancellor Rachel Reeves for dismissing a wealthiness taxation connected the richest people.

Torsten Bell, a erstwhile Treasury adjutant and main enforcement of the Resolution Foundation deliberation tank, argues that specified a taxation wouldn't rise significiant revenues. Despite Ms. Reeves' highlighting a £22bn spread successful nationalist finances, she has shrugged disconnected calls for taxing the nation's wealthiest.

Supporting the Chancellor’s position, Mr Bell said it was not adjuvant successful the wealth tax statement to comparison the UK with the US, arsenic the US has acold much billionaires. "On the taxation broadside it is precise fashionable connected the near to accidental ‘let’s conscionable person a wealthiness tax’," helium explained. "For immoderate of america who person spent 20 years moving connected taxation policy, I deliberation that is thing that is breathtaking for them to constitute successful books and not precise utile successful presumption of helping govern the country. There are 2 reasons wherefore that is."

"The abbreviated crushed wherefore that doesn’t enactment successful the UK is 2 words, Jeff Bezos. He does not unrecorded successful the UK. And, yes, we bash person immoderate precise affluent people. But our wealthiness is obscurity adjacent ... we don’t person the globally affluent radical that the US, particularly, has tons of."

Elon Musk, main exeuctive of Tesla, is the richest idiosyncratic and the richest antheral successful the satellite with a nett worthy estimated astatine $269bn. After Musk is Jeff Bezos, laminitis of Amazon. with a nett worthy successful the portion of $208bn.

He added: "You volition person a marque caller wealthiness taxation and you are not going to bring successful truly important revenues successful the UK. Secondly, doing it is truly hard. I americium fed up of radical saying Government should bash this past not getting remotely funny successful the hard occupation of getting homes built... taxes that really rise money."

Mr Bell, who was elected the MP for Swansea West successful July and was the Labour Party manager of argumentation nether Ed Miliband’s leadership, besides criticised successive Conservative governments for failing to deliver. "There has been capable crippled play implicit the 14 years," helium said during an lawsuit astatine the Cheltenham Literature Festival to beforehand his caller book, Great Britain? How We Get Our Future Back.

"It’s hard to do, and if you can’t flooded the hard occupation of doing it well, truthful it is conscionable a spot of virtual signalling, I’m acrophobic you tin get stuffed and shouldn’t beryllium successful authorities astatine all. It does substance erstwhile things are hard. That’s wherefore for 14 years the Tories promised to physique homes and didn’t."

"I’m fed-up of authorities of the similar of Nigel Farage, who says it is easy. That was besides the occupation with Boris Johnson – boosterism – saying Britain is simply a world beater is the mode we marque it a satellite beater. We person got to get superior and turn arsenic a country, doing the nitty gritty and really bash things."

"If you privation to turn taxes connected the wealthiness broadside we person got a batch of wealthiness taxes already, similar inheritance tax, superior gains tax, stamp duty. Sort retired those taxes is the archetypal mode you officially commencement taxing wealth, halt dreaming of your wealthiness taxation due to the fact that you are conscionable going to discarded years."

"I person spent 20 years successful this business. In the mediate of the past decade, I watched the near rotation disconnected for years discussing the worth of the cosmopolitan basal income and however robots were going to instrumentality each our jobs. That was amusive for them astatine their conferences."

"There was nary concern happening successful Britain, we didn’t person immoderate robots happening astatine all. There is nary plausible mode of delivering cosmopolitan basal income and astatine the aforesaid clip poorer households person seen the poorness complaint spell up."

"How astir we really absorption connected what’s happening alternatively than what you bask talking about? " Ms Reeves is acceptable to unveil her archetypal Budget connected October 30 and successful her league code past month, she cautioned of "tough decisions" up but dismissed a instrumentality to austerity measures. "Yes, we indispensable woody with the Tory bequest and that means pugnacious decisions, but I won’t fto that dim our ambition for Britain," she declared.

"So, it volition beryllium a fund with existent ambition, a fund to hole the foundations, a fund to present the alteration that we promised, a fund to rebuild Britain."