Gary Stevenson calls for wealth tax, warns Labour on election

Gary Stevenson, the former city trader turned activist and YouTuber, has issued a stark warning to the new Labour government: introduce a wealth tax or lose the next election to Nigel Farage and Reform UK. In an interview for Channel 4's video podcast The Forecast, Stevenson laid out his proposal for a 2% annual tax on wealth above £10 million and argued that without such a measure, living standards will keep falling and the political far right will gain ground.

Stevenson, who made millions in finance before becoming a vocal campaigner against inequality, said the current tax system is failing. "We have a tax system that is good at taxing working people, 50%, 60%, it is not taxing these people at all," he said, referring to the super rich. His proposed wealth tax would apply only to assets above £10 million, meaning someone worth £11 million would pay £20,000 a year, while someone worth £20 million would pay £200,000 a year. He described it as a way to stop "the working class gets poorer, the middle class gets poorer, the government goes bankrupt, and all of that wealth flows into the bank accounts of the richest people in the country."

Stevenson was critical of Labour's alternative approach, which focuses on equalising capital gains tax with income tax. He said that change would be "a tax on the upper middle class" and would not hit the top 1%. "What are you going to do about the fact that every single year, the 0.1% own more and more and more and more of the real resources of this country?" he asked. He also dismissed fears that taxing the super rich would drive them away, saying: "Britain is finished if you don't do anything. Everybody knows that."

The interview comes as Stevenson releases a new Channel 4 documentary, How to Get Filthy Rich, about taxing the super rich. He said he has had no engagement from Labour figures, apart from the "frozen out far left", and that he would welcome a conversation with Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, who has also called for taxing wealth more and income less. Stevenson warned that if Labour does not act on wealth taxes, "it will be Farage. Farage will come in. He will cut taxes on the super rich. Living standards will fall. He will fail on the economy. And I will still be here."

Stevenson, who now runs a popular YouTube channel called Gary's Economics, said he is "one guy who makes videos in my kitchen" but that millions watch his content each week. He argued that the public already understands the problem: "Everybody can see inequality is getting worse, stock markets are at all-time highs all over the world, and ordinary people can't feed their kids." He concluded with a direct challenge to the new Prime Minister: "If we don't get wealth taxes or some serious movement on wealth taxes from Bernie when he comes in, he will lose the next election. And I'll bet any money on that."