1 week Ago By [email protected] (Lizzy Buchan)
Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham has urged Labour to slap a 1% tax on the wealthiest Brits instead of "pickpocketing" pensioners. In an interview with the Sunday Mirror , she said Keir Starmer should ditch plans to cut the winter fuel allowance for 10 million older people and instead make millionaires pay more. The Unite leader said a 1% tax on the top 1% in society could raise around £25billion a year, exceeding the £22billion black hole in the nation's finances left behind by the Tories.
Ms Graham urged Chancellor Rachel Reeves not to slash public services in next month's Budget , saying: "People are not going to accept austerity mark two." Unite, the country's second largest union, will mount a push for a wealth tax at the Trades Union Congress (TUC) annual gathering as well as urging the Chancellor to rip up the rules to borrow to invest in infrastructure "This whole piece around, 'There is no money'. We've got a situation with pensioners being pick pocketed," Ms Graham said ahead of the meeting of unions in Brighton.
"At the same time you have the 50 richest families in Britain worth £500billion. That's the same amount of money that half of Britain is worth." Ms Graham said Labour should introduce a new tax on wealth, rather than raising existing taxes like Captial Gains Tax.
It would affect “the top 1%, broadly those people with £4 million clear and no mortgages. Anything over that they would be taxed 1% on. “So if you had £6 million and no mortgage, just clear assets and money, then it would be 1% on your extra £2 million.
” She said it was a mistake to axe the winter fuel allowance for all but the poorest pensioners, which has sparked fury from charities. A Commons vote on Tuesday on the cut will be a major test for the Government, with mounting unease among backbench MPs over the policy. Labour ’s massive majority means it’s unlikely to be overturned but a rebellion would still prove a major headache for the PM.
Ms Graham said: "They should accept it's an error - that's what leadership is about, sometimes errors are made. Accept it's an error, change course. "Let's really have a look about how we can have a much fairer society.
.. Why are we making the choice to pit pensioners against workers?" Be the first with news from Mirror Politics WHATSAPP GROUP: Be first to get the biggest bombshells and breaking news by joining our Politics WhatsApp group here .
NEWSLETTER: Or sign up here to the Mirror's Politics newsletter for all the best exclusives and opinions straight to your inbox. PODCAST: And listen to our exciting new political podcast The Division Bell , hosted by Mirror deputy political editor Lizzy Buchan and Express political editor Sam Lister, every Thursday. She also expressed unease at the PM's recent speech in the Downing Street garden - where he warned the Budget would be "painful".
"You can't help but feel that this is cuts. And the country can't go through another round of cuts, it's just not possible," she said. "I'm going to be asking and calling for Labour to change course and to look at introducing a wealth tax on one side, and on the other side borrow to invest for British industry.
" Ms Graham, who has been outspoken in her criticism of Mr Starmer in the past, added: "Just because they (Labour) say it's not austerity, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it's a duck. If that's what we're seeing then people are going to call it out for what it is. "Winter fuel was an error.
I think they (Labour) are going to do some very good things but they need to call it out as an error." Ordinary people paid the price for the financial crisis in 2008 and during the pandemic, and cannot pay again for Tory mistakes, she said. "That's why we vote Labour in - to equalise, to make sure we have a more equal society," Ms Graham said.
"If people can't see hope, we're in danger of people looking elsewhere for that hope. We're in danger of a gateway to the far-right in terms of that hope. "Labour can give that hope, they've got the ideas, they've got the people.
But this is the wrong place to begin those steps.".
