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The leader of Britain’s trade unions has urged Labour to fight Reform UK by hitting millionaires, banks and gambling with higher taxes.
Paul Nowak, general secretary of the TUC, has published an opinion poll of 5,000 adults.
He says the results suggest a significant number of Labour voters are leaning to Reform.
His call comes ahead of the TUC’s annual conference starting in Brighton this weekend, when the high-tax policy is expected to be overwhelmingly approved.
“I’ve seen first-hand the experience of the wealth tax, the solidarity tax in Spain and it raised billions of euros,” Mr Nowak said in a pre-conference interview with Sky News.
“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.
“But it’s not the only option the government has. They could equalise capital gains tax with income tax.
“They could have a windfall tax on the banks and the financial institutions who have got record profits.
“And they could tax the gambling industry much more fairly.”
He continued: “The big four banks between them had profits of nearly £46bn last year alone, mainly because we’re in a high interest rates environment.
“Under the previous Conservative government, when the energy companies had huge windfall profits, they moved to a windfall tax, extended by Labour.
“We think they should take a similar approach in banking and other sectors where we may see those windfall profits.”
Labour voters ‘leaning to Reform’
The debate over a wealth tax was triggered by a call by former Labour leader Lord Kinnock, in an interview on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News on 6 July, for a 2% levy on people with assets of more than £10m.
Weeks later, it was backed by Labour’s former shadow chancellor,…
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