‘Labour made active decision to tax income rather than take on the richest in this country’, Faiza Shaheen says
Shaheen said: "We’re not really hearing the noise we wanted" from the Burnham government
Faiza Shaheen, the executive director of Tax Justice and a former Labour parliamentary candidate, said that Keir Starmer’s Labour actively decided to tax income rather than take on the richest in this country and the lobbyists.
Shaheen also criticised Andy Burnham for appearing to U-turn after previously indicating he supported a wealth tax.
The prime minister has said said his government may have “to ask for a little more” tax at some point, but hasn’t committed to a wealth tax.
During a panel on wealth taxes at Green Party conference, Shaheen said that in Rachel Reeves’ 2025 budget “There was this really horrible moment […] where they made an active decision to essentially tax income more rather than take on the richest in this country and lobbyists.”
She added: “This is a reminder of how strong they [the lobbyists] are”.
Shaheen told Green Party members: “Even with Andy Burnham, he has in the past said he supported that [a wealth tax], but even then, he’s ruled it out for now.”
She said: “We’re not really hearing the noise we wanted.”
Shaheen said Labour is still deciding to tax “somewhere else” rather than the richest in society.
The former Labour parliamentary candidate, who was blocked from standing for the party in 2024, said Tax Justice had been doing research on what is stopping the Labour government from adopting a wealth tax.
Shaheen said that in conversations with cross-party MPs, and in particular Labour MPs, she said some had “swallowed or are worried about some of the lines that ‘the rich will leave’”. However, she said that lobbying was another key issue that has emerged in their research.
“One thing that obviously did come up was lobbying”, she added: “That lobby, they feel, is stronger and has more access than our lobby.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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