For the UK electorate, the Guardian article 19th May 2025 [1] is just the latest in a lengthening list of condemnations of the expanding gap between the extremely wealthy and everyone else.

Respected economists recognise that this trend is both damaging to the national economy but not inevitable: continued tolerance (or even support) for the perpetuation of this trend is a political choice. 

• "The wealth of the UK’s billionaires has skyrocketed by over 1000% between 1990 and 2022, ballooning by around £600bn" [3]
  
  
• "... wealth inequality is a significant driver of strategic risk to the UK as a whole, and that this risk is seriously underpriced by politicians and commentators. It exacerbates a range of existential risks, such as social unrest, failure to act on the climate crisis, economic stagnation and the decline of democracy. And it is a major risk to the achievement of all five of the government’s stated missions." [4]
  
  
• "... wealth has been growing in importance in the UK in recent decades, and that an increasing amount of household wealth, even with unchanging inequality, means that the wealthiest are, for all practical purposes, accelerating away from the rest of society." [5]

Please join me in signalling to the UK Government and to Parliament as a whole, especially now in the face of the stresses within the UK economy and Government expenditure in particular, that action to reverse this trend through bold taxation initiatives is necessary and a failure to take clear unapologetic corrective action will not be electorally forgotten. 

References

[1] Amelia Hill in 'The Guardian'  (19th May 2025) "UK’s 50 richest families hold more wealth than 50% of population, analysis finds" https://www.theguardian.com/news/2025/may/19/uk-50-richest-families-hold-more-wealth-than-50-of-population-analysis-finds

[2] Mike Brewer (Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Economist) at The resolution Foundation "Why you should all care about inequality" https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/comment/why-you-should-all-care-about-inequality/

[3] Jo Wittams (co-Executive Director) The Equality Trust "Equality Trust Finds a 1000% Increase in Billionaire Wealth" (2022) https://equalitytrust.org.uk/news/press-release/equality-trust-finds-1000-increase-billionaire-wealth/

[4] Will Snell (Chief Executive of the Fairness Foundation) "The UK’s wealth gap has grown by 50% in eight years – and poses a strategic risk to the nation" (20th Feb 2024) https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2024/10/29/the-uks-wealth-gap-has-grown-by-50-in-eight-years/

[5] Pascale Bourquin, Mike Brewer, Thomas Wernham, "Trends in income and wealth inequalities", Oxford Open Economics, Vol 3, Issue Supplement_1, 2024, Pages i103–i146, https://doi.org/10.1093/ooec/odad100