Labour backbenchers push global wealth tax for UK G20

Senior Labour backbenchers are urging Andy Burnham to champion a global wealth tax when the UK assumes the G20 presidency in 2027. The proposals, outlined in a collection of essays published by the New Economics Foundation, aim to establish a distinct economic platform separate from current government policy under Keir Starmer.

The wealth tax initiative carries the most direct implications for international capital markets and high-net-worth investors. Liam Byrne, chair of the Commons business and trade committee, argues the UK should use its G20 leadership to build on momentum created by Brazil and South Africa. "The UK – respected for institutional design and coordination – could take this momentum and help solve the problem of designing a tax that actually works, and which helps transform domestic resource mobilisation in countries both rich and poor," Byrne writes.

The essays also reopen the fiscal debate over the UK's 0.7% national income overseas aid target, legislated under Gordon Brown but cut by Rishi Sunak in 2020. Keir Starmer further reduced the budget to fund defence, prompting the resignation of development minister Anneliese Dodds.

Former minister Fleur Anderson advocates for a 10-year trajectory back to the 0.7% threshold. "What matters is not mechanical annual targets, but establishing a credible long-term trajectory that partner governments, multilateral institutions, NGOs and local organisations can plan around," she writes. She warns that abandoning development is "a false economy," arguing that "a more unstable world will not become safer because wealthy countries disengage from tackling the conditions that drive instability in the first place."

Separately, former minister Gareth Thomas highlights the UK's consecutive presidencies of the G20 in 2027 and the G7 in 2028 as a vehicle to reshape multilateral funding. He notes the UN’s sustainable development goals expire in 2030, creating a need for new frameworks. Echoing the debt relief secured by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown during a previous G8 chairmanship, Thomas proposes pooling $1bn to partner with the Gavi vaccines alliance to immunise a billion children in fragile states.

The policy package represents a coordinated effort by figures including David Miliband and Mark Malloch-Brown to influence Burnham's economic agenda. Danny Sriskandarajah, NEF's chief executive, said the proposals offer a chance to move beyond defensive foreign policy and demonstrate global leadership on "wealth taxes and shaping the next generation of multilateral institutions."