One can argue about whether the populism of the left in the British election campaign is very different from the populism of the right. Both the premier conservative Tories and Brexit party leader and Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn love to brag about being the true representatives of the people - and they prefer to rage against elites and the establishment.
The biggest difference is probably: Farage and Johnson want to take away the wealthy in the country, if they emerge from the early parliamentary election on December 12 as the winner, rather the opposite.
The leftist rather than the social-democratic Labor Party has exactly that. Jeremy Corbyn makes no secret of the fact that he wants to introduce new and higher taxes for best earners and rich after a change of government, in addition there are Labor plans to control capital flows more and inheritances already from a volume of 125,000 pounds (about 145,000 euros) to tax.
In addition, according to the thoughts of the former workers' and trade union party, the system of private schools, which has been an elitist system for centuries, should be made more permeable to all social classes. For Britain's under and middle class suffering from continuing inequality of wealth, this is promising news and a horror to the wealthy class.
As the "Guardian" reports, many British super-rich are already preparing for an emergency. The newspaper has spoken with lawyers and counselors, whose clients are now increasingly asking how it is possible to transfer larger assets abroad and to provide children with early inheritances or donations. Geoffrey Todd of law firm Boodle Hatfield told the newspaper that some of his clients are prepared to transfer their assets abroad or to offshore accounts within minutes of a Labor election victory. In some cases, only a signature is missing, even the money is out of the country.
"I prefer to go and live in the South of France or Monaco"
From the perspective of the super-rich, according to Dominic Samuelson, managing director of Camden Wealth, the prospect of a Labor government is "a far greater threat to their businesses and assets than Brexit." Samuelson has members from more than 3,000 wealthy British families as customers.
John Cauldwell, billionaire founder of the tech firm Phones4u, has already announced that he wants to turn his back on England with baggage if Corbyn becomes prime minister: that would be a complete fiasco, he told the Guardian, "I'd rather go out and live in South of France or Monaco. "
Rich people are petrified by fear when it comes to Corbyn and his plans, Peter Hargreaves told the newspaper. The stockbroker, with an estimated £ 3 billion in assets and up to 1,700 employees, understands well that some of his affluent peers are considering leaving their homeland to protect property from government seizure. "If you create a tax regime that does not support or welcome people like me who create wealth, you will weaken the country's economic health in no time," he warns.
He himself paid some 40 million pounds in taxes last year. "If 50 of the biggest taxpayers get on a plane and leave the country," the broker warns in the "Guardian," "that would make a huge hole in the government's budget."
The hunt for billionaires has begun
First, of course, Labor must first win the election. Jeremy Corbyn has not yet said specifically in the beginning of the election campaign, how exactly he wants to tax the rich. However, the Labor Program of 2017 provides for a new top rate of 50 percent on income starting at £ 123,000 a year. The current maximum rate of 45 per cent applicable to incomes of 150,000 pounds or more is then applied from an annual income of 80,000 pounds. The corporation tax for companies should increase from 19 to 26 percent, the deduction for inheritances and gifts would be halved.
Justin Tallis / AFP
Media Tycoon Murdoch (2014): In the sights of Labor politics
That sounds like tough cuts, but in 2018 the UK ranks fifth among European countries with the greatest economic and social inequality. So far, no action has been taken to reduce the widening gap between rich and poor. Nearly half of Britain's wealth, 44 percent, is owned by just 10 percent of the population, according to a survey by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).
151 billionaires live in the United Kingdom, preferably in the London metropolitan area or in the southwest of the country. The much-vaunted one percent of the richest British population, according to recent surveys, consists of 540,000 citizens, but they actually already account for about 30 percent of total tax revenues.
Despite such numbers games, Labor campaigner Corbyn opened the hunt for UK billionaires last week. In a speech he named five bosses he was after, he would become prime minister: Jim Ratcliffe, head of the chemical group Ineos, financial giants and Brexit supporters Crispin Odey, Hugh Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster and youngest billionaire in the country, sports and retail entrepreneur Mike Ashley and media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. They represent a rigged system of super-rich that would enrich themselves at the expense of the masses, according to Corbyn, who borrowed a favorite term from Donald Trump.
His shadow finance minister Clive Lewis goes even further: "Billionaires should not exist," said the Labor politician on the BBC. In the face of such class-warrior rhetoric, it's no wonder that the rich develop escape reflexes.