The leader of the Trades Union Congress has called on Labour to tax the wealthy, banks and gambling industry to fight the rise of Reform UK.
For months, Keir Starmer’s government has languished behind Reform in the national polls, and it is widely expected that chancellor Rachel Reeves will be forced to raise taxes at her budget in November.
A new poll from the TUC has also found a significant number of Labour voters are leaning towards Reform.
The TUC’s leader Paul Nowak has called on the prime minister to tax wealth, banks and the gambling industry to raise government funds. These were all measures backed by 74% of Labour voters “leaning to Reform” in the TUC’s poll.
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In an interview with Sky News ahead of the TUC’s annual conference this weekend, Nowak played down fears that a wealth tax would lead to an exodus of millionaires from the UK.
“I’ve seen first-hand the experience of the wealth tax, the solidarity tax in Spain and it raised billions of euros,” he said.
“It didn’t lead to an exodus of millionaires or wealthy people from Spain and Spain now has one of the fastest growing economies in the OECD. So I think it’s a good example of a wealth tax in action.”
Nowak also suggested Labour could equalise capital gains tax with income tax, introduce a windfall tax on banks and “tax the gambling industry much more fairly.”
He pointed out how the four biggest banks made “profits of nearly £46bn last year alone,” and called for a windfall tax similar to the one introduced by the Tories for energy companies.
Former Labour leader Lord Kinnock has previously called for a tax on wealth to raise funds.
Nowak said a wealth tax would differentiate Labour from Reform and show they were “on the side of working people.”
“What we want to do is expose the gap between what Nigel Farage says and what he does,” he told Sky.
“He says he stands up for working people and then votes against rights for millions of working people when it’s introduced in parliament.
“He says he stands up for British industry and supports Donald Trump and his destructive tariffs. And he talks about tax cuts for the rich when we know that we need those with the broader shoulders to pay their fair share.”