After years of Conservative chaos and neglect, there is no doubt that our NHS, social care, schools and other public services desperately need more investment. GPs are overstretched, hospitals are overcrowded, and school buildings are crumbling. At the same time, families and pensioners are struggling in the face of a cost-of-living crisis.

In the Liberal Democrat manifesto that I campaigned under, we committed to equalising capital gains tax with income tax.

I am open to further discussions on fairer taxation for the super-rich, including looking at a wealth tax. The problem is their money is not in the UK, it is offshore. We do not just want to tax their pocket money; we need to tax their piggybank. Because of this I am open to exploring this option, but we need to ensure that they cannot avoid it, like they do with other taxes. Otherwise, this could cause a lot of damage as capital leaves the UK and overseas territories and we will not see a penny. We need to make them pay, no ifs or buts.

The gap between rich and poor has grown exponentially with the top fifth taking 36% of the country’s income and 63% of the country’s wealth, while the bottom fifth have only 8% of the income and only 0.5% of the wealth according to the Office for National Statistics. Furthermore, the top 1% earn 20% of the total income. This has only got worse since the 1970s, and with the cost-of-living crisis inequality is more damaging than ever.

I spoke in a Westminster Hall Debate recently on the topic of tax transparency. Here I brought up the new research from the Tax Justice Network which reveals something that should shame us all: the world’s three biggest corporate tax havens: the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and Bermuda; are all British Overseas Territories.

Those havens cost the world an estimated $84 billion in lost corporate tax revenue every year. That is money that could be spent on hospitals, schools and infrastructure.

What is more, thanks to financial secrecy, we still do not know the full scale of the problem. The UK Government cannot shrug off responsibility. British Overseas Territories are subject to UK law in key areas, as has been outlined by others, and in 2018 Parliament passed legislation requiring them to implement public registers of company ownership—a crucial step in tackling financial crime.

However, successive Governments have failed to enforce that. This new Government must finally act and ensure that overseas territories meet the same transparency standards as the UK.

This is where we need to target. These people and corporations don’t pay existing taxes so they will not pay any additional ones.

As well as considering a wealth tax of the type you suggest, we should focus on tax changes that make the system fairer – such as reversing the Conservatives’ tax cuts for the big banks and imposing a proper windfall tax on the super-profits of oil and gas companies. This is because these would target those who would be paying, and they can’t avoid it.

I do want to raise a point often brought up in the debate which I think is incredibly misleading it says “Even a 2% tax on assets over £10 million – similar to Spain's model – could raise around £24 billion per year – enough to invest in public services, help fund a just transition away from fossil fuels and towards a green, fair economy, and support global justice.” This is all well and good but Spain raises 600 million Euros per year with it’s tax – are we roughly 45x wealthier than the Spanish. I doubt it. This combined with the case of Norway where they raised their wealth tax and it led to lower returns as more capital moved away shows how careful we need to be with the expectations and execution of such a tax. 

Responsible public finances are essential for the stability, certainty and confidence that drive economic growth, and for getting mortgage rates under control.

The last Government demonstrated all too clearly the damage and pain caused by fiscal irresponsibility, so I hope the new government will work to tackle the lack of transparency associated with our overseas tax havens.