The TUC leader has urged Keir Starmer to ensure wealthy Brits pay higher taxes to "level the playing field"

05 September 2024 , 15:31

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The TUC leader has urged Keir Starmer to ensure wealthy Brits pay higher taxes to "level the playing field"

TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak made the call as he expressed ’real concerns’ about Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s decision to cut the winter fuel allowance for millions of pensioners

The head of Britain’s trades union movement has said wealthier Brits must face higher taxes as he issued a warning over plans to cut the winter fuel allowance for 10 million pensioners.

TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said he had "real concerns" about Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s decision to means-test the lifeline fuel payment this winter. He called for help in next month’s Budget for pensioners just above the eligibility threshold who risk being pushed into hardship.

In an interview ahead of annual union gathering in Brighton, Mr Nowak urged the Government to look at hiking taxes on wealth to level the playing field for hard-pressed workers. He said: "There’s a huge set of challenges, whether it’s the winter fuel allowance, Universal Credit, the two-child cap, there is so much that is broken that the Chancellor has to think about in the round."

TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak spoke to the Mirror’s Lizzy Buchan ahead of the annual unions gathering ( Image: Tim Merry)

He urged the Government to "make it clear that those with the broadest shoulders are expected to do the bulk of the heavy lifting and give people a sense of optimism that we’re moving in the right direction."

Keir Starmer warned last week that the Budget would be "painful" due to the £22billion black hole the Tories left in the public finances. Labour has repeatedly promised not to hike taxes on working people. But Ms Reeves has not ruled out increasing levies on wealth like inheritance tax or capital gains.

The TUC leader said: "People who go to work in supermarkets or in warehouses or in schools, they shouldn’t be paying a higher rate of tax than someone who gets their income through shares or through property. I think levelling that playing field would be a good step in the right direction and would raise billions that’s desperately needed for our public services."

Keir Starmer has hit the ground running since Labour’s landslide election win but the Government has been left with a toxic legacy by the Tories, he said.

"We know it’s not all going to be plain sailing, but now we’ve got a Government that is on the side of working people," he said. "I think we’ve got a real opportunity to make work pay, to rebuild our public services, to improve the quality of work."

Mr Nowak said recent public sector pay hikes were a "down payment" on the need to improve public services and recognise hard-working staff. He added: "It’s not the end point by any stretch of the imagination but it’s changed the mood dramatically from the previous government."

Thomas Brown