Starmer and Reeves should prepare UK for wealth tax, say top economists | Economics

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have been urged by a group of the world’s leading economists to use the autumn budget to prepare Britain for the introduction of a new wealth tax to tackle “extreme” levels of inequality.

With the government under pressure to raise taxes, the group of economists, including the French expert on wealth inequality Thomas Piketty, said the UK prime minister could raise “tens of billions of pounds” while positioning Britain as a progressive leader on the world stage.

In a letter shared with the Guardian, the experts warned that wealth in Britain – like many rich countries – had become concentrated in fewer and fewer hands in recent decades at the expense of the nation at large.

It comes as the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, faces mounting pressure from…