Unite’s Plan is For A Tax of 1% To Be Applied on The Assets of Those Worth More Than £4m

The demand from Britain’s second biggest union will test truce with Labour at next month’s TUC conference.

Britain’s second-largest union has called on a new Labour government to impose an emergency 1% wealth tax on the assets of the super-rich, fund a 10% pay rise for public sector workers and fill more than 100,000 vacancies in the NHS.

The Unite union’s demands are among a number to be presented to the Trades Union Congress, which takes place in Brighton next month and will expose tensions between Keir Starmer’s government and parts of the union movement. It comes as Rachel Reeves prepares her first budget as chancellor on October 30.

Labour MPs and ministers believe the TUC could mark the moment when the effective truce between many unions and the Labour Party, which backed Starmer’s campaign, could begin to break down, as the prime minister and Reeves reaffirm their commitment to fiscal responsibility and stress the need for tough decisions if the economy is to return to health.

Other major unions are preparing to push Labour for further policy changes, including removing the cap on second-child benefits, which Starmer has so far resisted, and overturning the recent decision to end winter grants to millions of pensioners, removing them following a strong reaction from Labour backbenchers.

While Reeves appears to be considering increasing capital gains and inheritance taxes in the budget, Unite’s submission to the TUC conference goes further, saying that given the financial difficulties of local authorities, the urgent need for increased public investment cannot wait until economic growth begins from some unspecified point in the future.

Unite’s plan would impose a 1% wealth tax on those with assets over £4m, which could raise £25bn a year to fund investment in public services and avoid a return to austerity. Under the plan, someone with £6m of assets would have to pay a 1% tax on the £2m above the £4m threshold. These assets include property, shares and bank accounts, but not mortgaged property.

Unite points to a study showing that the UK’s 50 richest families now own assets worth nearly £500bn.

Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, said: “Unite’s resolution to the TUC on the economy is a real one. The UK economy is broken.

“Britain led the world’s first industrial revolution. But due to decades of underinvestment in manufacturing and national infrastructure, we are now lagging badly behind other countries in the new technological age and the transition to net zero.

“We need to invest heavily in vulnerable public services and industry to ensure a prosperous future for British workers and their communities. Simply waiting for growth will not get us the money we need.”

Unite was a major donor to the Labour Party in 2019 but has not contributed to this year’s campaign. The election manifesto does not go far enough in protecting the rights and jobs of workers in the oil and gas industry.

Transport union RMT has also tabled a motion to the conference calling for a wealth tax to fund public investment and the abolition of “unnecessarily restrictive and arbitrary fiscal rules” that limit the government’s ability to borrow.

Shop workers union Usdaw tabled a motion calling for the removal of the cap on the two-child allowance, and civil servants union PCS tabled an amendment to the same motion calling on the TUC to “reject cuts to winter heating allowance” and “commit to appropriate taxation of corporations and the super-rich” to fund the social security improvements mentioned in the proposal.

TUC Unite is also expected to push for “wage recovery” to offset a decade of real-terms pay cuts for public sector workers.

Such demands would further inflame tensions between Labour and its union backers after a string of pay deals between Starmer’s government and striking workers in sectors ranging from healthcare to railways.