Millionaire trader-turned-campaigner Gary Stevenson’s wealth tax plan is ‘absolute populist claptrap’ and will ruin Britain, say experts

A wealth tax proposed by millionaire trader-turned-campaigner Gary Stevenson has been branded ‘absolute populist nonsense’ and a ‘disaster’ in a documentary.

A billionaire claims he will leave the UK if Mr Stevenson’s plan to introduce a 2 per cent annual tax on people with total assets exceeding £10 million is implemented.

In recent weeks, Mr Stevenson is said to have been approached by Andy Burnham’s team to discuss fiscal policy and even become an advisor ahead of the former Manchester Mayor’s expected tenure as prime minister.

The 39-year-old claims an annual wealth tax would raise up to £24bn for the Treasury, but critics have warned Labor that such a policy could see £100bn flown out of the country as the rich flee, damaging growth, investment and jobs.

The former Citibank trader pitched his controversial plans to entrepreneurs, tax experts, wealthy property owners and online finance experts while filming his new Channel 4 show ‘How to Get Filthy Rich with Gary Stevenson’, which airs at 9pm tonight.

In an exclusive clip published in the Daily Mail this week, a tax evasion expert is seen accusing Mr Stevenson of being ‘obsessed with solving inequality’.

Andrew Henderson is the founder of Nomad Capitalists, a company that helps rich people legally avoid paying taxes and make more money by moving to countries.

Mr Stevenson asked him in an interview whether he was ‘concerned about what would happen to inequality if rich people stopped paying more and more taxes’.

But Mr Henderson hit back at the campaigner, saying: ‘You are obsessed with solving this inequality. The world will become unequal. Do I think this is completely fair?

‘I don’t think life is fair. And I think that fundamentally upsets people who talk about inequality because you think you have the right to take rich people’s money.’

The documentary follows Mr Stevenson, who wrote the bestselling book The Trading Game, as he ‘explores the growing concentration of wealth in Britain and whether the solution lies in taxing wealth rather than income’.

Mr Stevenson, who grew up in Ilford, east London, is exploring whether a new tax could reverse the ‘concentration’ of wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people.

The postman’s son made millions in the city before leaving to become a campaigner on economic inequality.

The documentary claims the 56 richest people own the wealth of 27 million people in the UK and that the average billionaire increased their wealth by £231 million last year.

It also says wages are lower in real terms than they were almost 20 years ago, and average student debt in England has risen from £3,200 in 2000 to £53,000 today.

Speaking about the concentration of wealth at the top, he says: ‘If this continues, it is inevitable that billionaires and the super-rich will own an increasingly larger share of the real wealth of this country; This means that other groups in society, the working class, the middle class and the government, will have less and less.’

She meets Bassim Haidar, a Reform Party donor and billionaire entrepreneur who owns a £42 million house in London. Haidar tells Mr Stevenson that he will ‘exit’ Britain if a wealth tax is introduced.

Mr Haidar adds: ‘Yes, even if I sell [his businesses] I’m at a loss, I don’t care.

‘Because it has become a matter of principle. Wealth is mobile, so I will walk away. I will walk away. And listen, I’ll take a hit for a year, that’s okay. But then I’ll go away and never come back.’

Millionaire trader-turned-campaigner Gary Stevenson features in new Channel 4 documentary

Andrew Henderson is a tax avoidance expert and founder of Nomad Capitalists.

But Mr Stevenson responds: ‘I think most of these threats are just for intimidation purposes. Rich people derive most of their income from owning assets.

‘Your home, your supermarket, the farms that grow your food, the power plants that produce your energy. A lot of wealthy people have assets that are basically pegged to this country.’

He also visits Francis Fulford, the 29th generation who inherited the family estate in Devon, which includes 3,000 acres of land, 24 properties and an estate worth an estimated £40 million.

Mr. Fulford says: ‘The effect of what you say is to destroy this. We have been interested in this landscape for about 1000 years, etc. ‘I’ve been planting trees for a hundred years for my great-grandson to harvest.’

And Mr. Stevenson replies: ‘What about everyone else’s grandchildren? What will they have?’

When Mr Stevenson says a wealth tax would give Mr Fulford a bill of £600,000 a year, Mr Fulford replies: ‘That would obviously be a disaster and so we would probably have to borrow the money to pay black taxes, knowing that your government is doomed to hell.

‘I’m sorry Gary, your life at the top would be very limited. But we will find a way to win, just as we have won in every bad period for the last 500 years.’

Mr Stevenson also speaks to leading tax expert Dan Neidle, founder of the Tax Policy Associates think tank, who describes his idea as ‘absolute populist nonsense’.

Mr Neidle continued: ‘Those pushing this should be ashamed of themselves. If the Chancellor stood up and said we were going to impose a wealth tax, a 2 per cent tax on all wealth over ten million, that would require, let’s be generous, at least a year’s planning.

Mr Stevenson is said to have been approached by Andy Burnham’s team in recent weeks

‘Then you need to set up the systems you need to tax 20,000 people. You won’t receive any revenue from the wealth tax before 2029. You may be in favor of a wealth tax, but anyone who claims it is a solution is mistaken.’

When Mr Stevenson backs down, Mr Neidle goes further and tells him: ‘You cannot separate your emotional response to inequality from a rational assessment of the best means for doing so.’

He adds: ‘If you were a real economist you would think about the problem of foreign investment.’

But Mr Stevenson responds: ‘I’m an inequality economist and I can see that inequality causes this huge long-term problem and I want it to be addressed.’

He also speaks to online finance guru Samuel Leeds, a self-styled real estate expert with more than 600,000 YouTube subscribers.

Mr. Stevenson tells him: ‘I worry sometimes when people like you talk as if anyone could become rich if they just tried. It has a really bad impact on the mental health of young people, especially young men.

‘Because in a world where making money is so difficult, they are told that it is easy to make money if you just try. And the logical consequence of this is; If you’re poor, if you’re not making money, it’s your fault.’

But Mr Leeds replies: ‘Yes, that’s a very nuanced conversation because I could equally argue that people are most depressed when they’re not in control.

‘However, when you give control to people and say ‘look, this will not be easy, it is difficult’, you can do something about it. Don’t be rich, but earn extra. £500 a month. I don’t think it causes mental health problems in people.

‘Of course I am what I am as a human being, [I] I’d rather focus on my life, my economy and my family.’

Mr Stevenson concludes: ‘100 years ago my grandmother was born here in London and her three siblings died of tuberculosis, a disease of poverty.

‘Over his lifetime this country went from a country where ordinary people were dying en masse from poverty to a country where people like my parents could get a regular job with a regular salary, buy a house, raise three children, get a pension, get financial security, retire and send all three of those kids to college.

‘This happened during my grandmother’s lifetime, alongside massive increases in taxes on the rich. Increases that have since reversed. How will we change this country for our grandchildren? ‘I know what I’m betting on and I know what I’m fighting for.’

‘How to Get Filthy Rich with Gary Stevenson’ airs tonight at 21.00 on Channel 4