{"id":596049,"date":"2026-05-21T11:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T11:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/596049\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T11:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T11:13:08","slug":"wes-streeting-calls-for-equal-tax-on-income-and-capital-gains-in-labour-leadership-pitch-tax-and-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/596049\/","title":{"rendered":"Wes Streeting calls for equal tax on income and capital gains in Labour leadership pitch | Tax and spending"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former health secretary Wes Streeting<\/a> has set out plans for a \u201cwealth tax that works\u201d, by equalising tax on assets and income.<\/p>\n

Streeting said the current system \u2013 in which capital gains tax is generally much lower than income tax \u2013 was not fair and penalised work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wealth gap in this country has widened, the opportunity gap in the country is widening and the gap between earned income and unearned income has also widened,\u201d he told the BBC\u2019s Political Thinking podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Laying out part of his pitch for the leadership of the Labour<\/a> party, Streeting told Nick Robinson that the plan could raise up to \u00a312bn a year. He used the example of a woman in Lancashire who paid a higher rate of tax on her salary than her landlord paid for the growing value of the house she rented.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe slogs her guts out, he puts in far less effort, yet the state rewards him more than her. And we wonder why people are angry,\u201d he said. \u201cThe system is penalising work. It\u2019s not fair and it\u2019s bad for our economy. We need a wealth tax that works. A pound made from simply owning assets should not be taxed less than a pound made from a hard day\u2019s work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the existing system, higher or additional rate taxpayers pay 24% on gains they make on capital in the current financial year. Under Streeting\u2019s proposals, capital gains tax rates would mirror the three bands of income tax of 20%, 40% and 45%, with a person\u2019s capital gains tax band calculated by adding up their income and profits from assets. A 2024 report by the Centre for the Analysis of Taxation<\/a> estimated that changing capital gains tax under its proposed plan could raise \u00a314bn.<\/p>\n

Critics of raising capital gains tax argue that it could result in capital flight, discourage investment, or \u2013 because the tax is paid on sale \u2013 encourage investors to hold on to assets. But Streeting said there was \u201ca good pro-business, pro-growth, pro-productivity argument\u201d in his proposals because the current system encouraged investment in less productive businesses. Streeting said tax changes could include measures to protect real entrepreneurs, with lower capital gains tax rates for those taking risks building companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kite that I am flying in this leadership contest will be to equalise those rates, with allowances for genuine entrepreneurialism, investment, reinvestment, so that we can be both pro-worker, pro-entrepreneurialism, pro-fairness, and in the course of that, generate up to \u00a312bn worth of revenues.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ilford North MP said the government should close loopholes that allow people to disguise income from work as capital gains, such as setting up personal service companies or taking pay in shares.<\/p>\n

Streeting, who quit the cabinet last week and called on Keir Starmer to stand down, warned in his resignation speech on Wednesday that Labour must change course or risk handing Reform UK power<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He said that while he had the support of 81 MPs, the number needed to launch a leadership challenge, he had decided not to because he had \u201cgot wind\u201d that the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, had found a seat to stand in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was clear that if we had been plunged straight into a leadership contest by me or for that matter, anyone else, I think it would have been seen as a deliberate attempt to get ahead of Andy Burnham\u2019s potential return,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if there\u2019s one thing that we need to do coming out of a change in leadership, it is to bring the tribes of the Labour party together, to unite around one leader as one team, drawing on Labour\u2019s different political traditions to unite progressives and beat Reform.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former health secretary Wes Streeting has set out plans for a \u201cwealth tax that works\u201d, by equalising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-596049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}