Featured Image Credit: Patriotic Millionaires/Alamy
Topics: UK News, Politics, Rishi Sunak
Dominic Smithers
Topics: UK News, Politics, Rishi Sunak
A group of millionaires are demanding the wealthier in society pay more in tax.
The World Economic Forum is meeting in Davos, Switzerland, this week for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic sent the world into meltdown.
And protesters have gathered, urging the world's leaders to 'tax us now' in a bid to reduce the gap between the rich and poor.
The protests come as Oxfam revealed recently that the cost of living crisis was pushing people to the brink, with 263 million more people falling into extreme poverty this year.
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Phil White is a former business consultant and key member of Patriotic Millionaires UK, a network of British millionaires who are trying to encourage the world's leaders to reduce inequality.
Speaking about the protests, he said it was vital that action was taken before it was too late.
"While the rest of the world is collapsing under the weight of an economic crisis, billionaires and world leaders meet in this private compound to discuss turning points in history," he said.
"It’s outrageous that our political leaders listen to those who have the most, know the least about the economic impact of this crisis, and many of whom pay infamously little in taxes.
"The only credible outcome from this conference is to tax the richest and tax us now. Tax the delegates attending Davos 2022."
Marlene Engelhorn is an heir to the founders of the BASF chemical company, who co-founded the #taxmenow initiative.
She said those who have the most money have a duty to use it to help those most in need.
"As someone who has enjoyed the benefits of wealth my whole life, I know how skewed our economy is and I cannot continue to sit back and wait for someone, somewhere, to do something," Engelhorn said.
"I feel there is no option left for us other than to take action. Our governments continue to do nothing to address gross inequality and instead meet behind closed doors in this spectacle of private wealth.
"We have hit the end of the line when another quarter of a billion people will be pushed into extreme poverty this year. It’s time to rebalance the world. It’s time to tax the rich."
This comes after news that there were now more billionaires in the UK than ever before.
The Sunday Times Rich List was released last week and showed there were 177 billionaires in the country - an increase of six on 2021.
According to the reports, the top 250 entrants in this year's list are actually wealthier than all 1,000 entries from 2017.
Property magnates Sri and Gopi Hinduja, who are said to be worth £28.472 billion, topped this year's list, boasting the largest amount ever recorded for a family or individual in the Rich List.
Behind them was Sir James Dyson and his family, who are worth an estimated £23 billion, while the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, also made the list of top earners this year - the first frontline politician in the UK to make the list in more than 30 years.
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