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There’s no money left.
That’s the story Labour is telling.
It was the justification for an early and brutal move to slash disability benefits.
And now it’s the reason given for ruling out any serious tax reform aimed at the wealthiest.
But this week, that story fell apart.
On Tuesday (July 1), the Labour government was forced into a U-turn on one of its most controversial policies: cuts to disability benefits designed to “save” £5 billion a year.
The flagship reforms to Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payments (PIP), initially billed as tough decisions for fiscal responsibility, are now in tatters after legal advice, internal resistance, and a tidal wave of public backlash.
With the savings gone, Labour now faces a simple question: where will the money come from?
There is, in fact, a very obvious answer — if Labour dares to take it.
Six books are gone – 44 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
The money is in wealth – and it’s not going anywhere.
The UK is not poor.
It is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and private wealth has ballooned in recent decades — reaching £15 trillion, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The problem isn’t a lack of resources; it’s that those resources are concentrated at the top, and barely taxed.
The richest one per cent of households hold more than 23 per cent of all UK wealth.
Since 2010, the top 0.1 per cent alone have gained around £400 billion in asset growth — more than the entire NHS budget.
And yet the UK raises just 0.04 per cent of GDP from taxes on wealth.
That’s far less than France, the US, or even Switzerland.
Labour could choose to tax this wealth.
It could close long-standing loopholes in the inheritance system.
It could finally equalise capital gains with income.
It could scrap regressive giveaways like Business Property Relief and non-dom status.
Or — if it wanted to show real ambition — it could tax the net wealth of multi-millionaires directly, as other countries have done.
But instead of talking about what’s fair or fiscally responsible, we’re hearing a different story: that the rich are already leaving, and higher taxes would only accelerate the exodus.
This story is a lie – and it’s time to bury it.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
No, the rich are not fleeing
Over the past few months, a widely reported claim has circulated that 9,500 millionaires left the UK in 2024 — more than any other country.
The source is a report by Henley & Partners, a firm that sells “golden visas” and helps wealthy clients relocate to low-tax jurisdictions.
Their data is based on unclear methodology — most likely LinkedIn job locations, not actual tax residency.
But even if we take the 9,500 figure at face value, it represents just 0.3 per cent of the UK’s millionaire population.
According to Credit Suisse and ONS estimates, there are many more than three million millionaires in the UK — a number that has actually grown in recent years.
Get my free guide: “10 Political Lies You Were Sold This Decade” — just subscribe to our email list here:
👉 https://voxpoliticalonline.com
Far from fleeing en masse, the vast majority of wealthy Britons are staying put – because the UK remains an excellent place to be rich.
It has low headline taxes on capital, generous treatment of inherited wealth, a thriving financial sector, world-class private schools, and elite social networks rooted in London, Oxford, and the Home Counties.
Even many of those who “leave” for tax purposes don’t really leave at all.
They simply restructure their financial affairs — through offshore trusts, shell companies, or legal non-dom status — while continuing to enjoy life in the UK under the radar.
In reality, the rich are not running away.
They’re deeply embedded.
Their families, properties, businesses, and lives are here.
That makes the government’s reluctance to tax them all the more absurd.
The political moment has arrived
Labour’s planned disability cuts were meant to prove its economic “toughness.”
But the backlash has proven something else: that there are limits to how much cruelty the public will accept in the name of fiscal discipline.
The government now has a problem.
The promised £5 billion in benefit cuts has evaporated, and the OBR isn’t projecting much fiscal headroom.
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves insists she won’t borrow, won’t raise income taxes, and won’t bring back a full-scale wealth tax.
That leaves Labour one option: to rethink how we tax wealth in the UK.
They wouldn’t need to invent new systems from scratch. Some of the most effective reforms could be implemented within a year:
-
Equalising capital gains and income tax rates: Currently, someone making money from stocks pays less tax than someone earning the same income from work. Aligning those rates could raise £10–15 billion annually.
-
Reforming inheritance loopholes: Business Property Relief and Agricultural Relief are routinely abused to shield vast fortunes. Ending them could raise £5–6 billion.
-
Replacing council tax with a proportional property tax: Council tax is wildly regressive and outdated. A reformed system could generate £6–11 billion while being fairer for most households.
-
Taxing net wealth above £10 million: Even a modest one per cent levy on ultra-wealth could raise £10–20 billion, affecting fewer than 25,000 people.
-
A full end to non-dom exemptions: The current changes still allow many wealthy residents to avoid tax on offshore income. A clean break could raise £3–4 billion.
These aren’t radical ideas.
Many are backed by economists across the political spectrum.
Some were even proposed by Conservative-commissioned reviews.
Public support is overwhelming: 84 per cent of voters support higher taxes on wealth, including a strong majority of Conservative voters.
And if Labour fears a backlash from the rich, it should remember this: political risk doesn’t come from taxing wealth. It comes from failing to govern fairly.
Six books are gone – 44 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
A choice that defines a government
The government’s aborted attempt to cut disability benefits wasn’t just a policy failure.
It was a moral one.
It asked some of the most vulnerable people in Britain to pay for an economic crisis they didn’t cause — while continuing to protect the unearned gains of those who benefited most from it.
Now that plan has failed.
And Labour must decide what comes next.
It can stick with a politics of scarcity and fear — one that punishes the poor and flatters the wealthy, all while pretending the money simply isn’t there.
Or it can acknowledge reality: that Britain is a rich country with a wealth problem, not a spending one.
The millionaires aren’t leaving – but the excuses are running out.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
Benefit cuts plan collapses – why doesn’t Labour now tax the rich who AREN’T leaving?
Share this post:
There’s no money left.
That’s the story Labour is telling.
It was the justification for an early and brutal move to slash disability benefits.
And now it’s the reason given for ruling out any serious tax reform aimed at the wealthiest.
But this week, that story fell apart.
On Tuesday (July 1), the Labour government was forced into a U-turn on one of its most controversial policies: cuts to disability benefits designed to “save” £5 billion a year.
The flagship reforms to Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payments (PIP), initially billed as tough decisions for fiscal responsibility, are now in tatters after legal advice, internal resistance, and a tidal wave of public backlash.
With the savings gone, Labour now faces a simple question: where will the money come from?
There is, in fact, a very obvious answer — if Labour dares to take it.
Six books are gone – 44 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
The money is in wealth – and it’s not going anywhere.
The UK is not poor.
It is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and private wealth has ballooned in recent decades — reaching £15 trillion, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The problem isn’t a lack of resources; it’s that those resources are concentrated at the top, and barely taxed.
The richest one per cent of households hold more than 23 per cent of all UK wealth.
Since 2010, the top 0.1 per cent alone have gained around £400 billion in asset growth — more than the entire NHS budget.
And yet the UK raises just 0.04 per cent of GDP from taxes on wealth.
That’s far less than France, the US, or even Switzerland.
Labour could choose to tax this wealth.
It could close long-standing loopholes in the inheritance system.
It could finally equalise capital gains with income.
It could scrap regressive giveaways like Business Property Relief and non-dom status.
Or — if it wanted to show real ambition — it could tax the net wealth of multi-millionaires directly, as other countries have done.
But instead of talking about what’s fair or fiscally responsible, we’re hearing a different story: that the rich are already leaving, and higher taxes would only accelerate the exodus.
This story is a lie – and it’s time to bury it.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
No, the rich are not fleeing
Over the past few months, a widely reported claim has circulated that 9,500 millionaires left the UK in 2024 — more than any other country.
The source is a report by Henley & Partners, a firm that sells “golden visas” and helps wealthy clients relocate to low-tax jurisdictions.
Their data is based on unclear methodology — most likely LinkedIn job locations, not actual tax residency.
But even if we take the 9,500 figure at face value, it represents just 0.3 per cent of the UK’s millionaire population.
According to Credit Suisse and ONS estimates, there are many more than three million millionaires in the UK — a number that has actually grown in recent years.
Get my free guide: “10 Political Lies You Were Sold This Decade” — just subscribe to our email list here:
👉 https://voxpoliticalonline.com
Far from fleeing en masse, the vast majority of wealthy Britons are staying put – because the UK remains an excellent place to be rich.
It has low headline taxes on capital, generous treatment of inherited wealth, a thriving financial sector, world-class private schools, and elite social networks rooted in London, Oxford, and the Home Counties.
Even many of those who “leave” for tax purposes don’t really leave at all.
They simply restructure their financial affairs — through offshore trusts, shell companies, or legal non-dom status — while continuing to enjoy life in the UK under the radar.
In reality, the rich are not running away.
They’re deeply embedded.
Their families, properties, businesses, and lives are here.
That makes the government’s reluctance to tax them all the more absurd.
The political moment has arrived
Labour’s planned disability cuts were meant to prove its economic “toughness.”
But the backlash has proven something else: that there are limits to how much cruelty the public will accept in the name of fiscal discipline.
The government now has a problem.
The promised £5 billion in benefit cuts has evaporated, and the OBR isn’t projecting much fiscal headroom.
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves insists she won’t borrow, won’t raise income taxes, and won’t bring back a full-scale wealth tax.
That leaves Labour one option: to rethink how we tax wealth in the UK.
They wouldn’t need to invent new systems from scratch. Some of the most effective reforms could be implemented within a year:
Equalising capital gains and income tax rates: Currently, someone making money from stocks pays less tax than someone earning the same income from work. Aligning those rates could raise £10–15 billion annually.
Reforming inheritance loopholes: Business Property Relief and Agricultural Relief are routinely abused to shield vast fortunes. Ending them could raise £5–6 billion.
Replacing council tax with a proportional property tax: Council tax is wildly regressive and outdated. A reformed system could generate £6–11 billion while being fairer for most households.
Taxing net wealth above £10 million: Even a modest one per cent levy on ultra-wealth could raise £10–20 billion, affecting fewer than 25,000 people.
A full end to non-dom exemptions: The current changes still allow many wealthy residents to avoid tax on offshore income. A clean break could raise £3–4 billion.
These aren’t radical ideas.
Many are backed by economists across the political spectrum.
Some were even proposed by Conservative-commissioned reviews.
Public support is overwhelming: 84 per cent of voters support higher taxes on wealth, including a strong majority of Conservative voters.
And if Labour fears a backlash from the rich, it should remember this: political risk doesn’t come from taxing wealth. It comes from failing to govern fairly.
Six books are gone – 44 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
A choice that defines a government
The government’s aborted attempt to cut disability benefits wasn’t just a policy failure.
It was a moral one.
It asked some of the most vulnerable people in Britain to pay for an economic crisis they didn’t cause — while continuing to protect the unearned gains of those who benefited most from it.
Now that plan has failed.
And Labour must decide what comes next.
It can stick with a politics of scarcity and fear — one that punishes the poor and flatters the wealthy, all while pretending the money simply isn’t there.
Or it can acknowledge reality: that Britain is a rich country with a wealth problem, not a spending one.
The millionaires aren’t leaving – but the excuses are running out.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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