Protesters disrupt Starmer minister at event with demands for a wealth tax

Protesters from Climate Resistance have confronted Diana Johnson, Keir Starmer’s Minister for Employment, along with Chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee Debbie Abrahams, at a panel event organised by The New Statesman. The demonstrators demanded to know why Starmer’s Labour government continues to serve the interests of billionaires instead of working people. The event was supposedly about providing ordinary people with “Longer, Healthier, Working Lives”, not for their own benefit but to “Support the Economy”.

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Protesters unfurled banners reading “Tax the rich” and shouted “We need a wealth tax!”, before one gave a speech about Johnson’s support for the government’s war on sick and disabled people, which will push hundreds of thousands of them into poverty – along with their children.

In line with the government’s usual lack of concern for safety and the right to protest, security tackled protesters to the ground as they entered the conference venue, but one was able to make it into the audience before being removed.

Starmer and his minions have refused to impose a wealth tax in next week’s autumn budget despite overwhelming public support for one even among right-wing voters. The top 10% in the UK hold more wealth than the rest of the population put together. According to YouGov, three quarters of Brits support a wealth tax.

Over the past year, Labour has faced public as well as internal opposition over benefit cuts, including cuts to the winter fuel allowance and disability benefits, and Starmer’s determination to keep the hated ‘two-child cap’ that has pushed more than a million children into poverty or deeper into it. Meanwhile, billionaire wealth has grown by around £35 million a day and just fifty families now hold more wealth than half the British population, while the government has also renewed subsidies for companies like Drax, the UK’s largest carbon emitter. Support for Starmer’s party has fallen to record lows.

Sam Simons, spokesperson for Climate Resistance, said:

While Dame Johnson has claimed fees for her second home, she only wants ordinary workers to live healthier lives so they can continue to line the pockets of the ultra-wealthy. This government talks about ‘longer, healthier working lives’ while protecting the super-rich who have hoarded extreme wealth during the cost of living crisis. With the budget just a week away, Labour’s continued silence on wealth taxes is an insult to working people.

Labour is clearly still the party of billionaires more than willing to inflict grinding poverty on the vulnerable to help its donors get even richer, while scapegoating poor people and refugees as they fuel the rise of the far right.

Featured image via Climate Resistance