Wealth Tax Campaigner Guru Confuses Government Debt for Deficit
Between 5 and 7 p.m. tonight “people’s economist” Gary Stevenson is addressing a crowd of wealth tax campaigners in front of the Treasury as part of a pre-Spring Forecast protest organised by War on Want, Oxfam, Greenpeace and others. Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer, Labour peer Prem Sikka, and Dale Vince will also speak as a “Tax the Super-Rich” message is projected onto Reeves’ 1 Horse Guards Road headquarters…
Viral campaigner Stevenson has been parading broadcast programmes in the past week to promote his year-old book The Trading Game as well as his plans for a wealth tax. Guido Verify has examined some of Gary’s claims closely…
On Jeremy Vine’s show Stevenson said “the total UK government deficit since the beginning of Covid” was “£1 trillion.” He added: “Every single adult in the country should be 20 grand richer because if the government gives a trillion pounds out somebody gets a trillion pounds… if you pause the economy for two years and give a trillion pounds to the richest people in your society obviously you will cause an economic crisis.” Incredible numbers…
A Guido Verify analysis of the figures shows there are some credibility errors. UK annual government deficits have totalled £527 billion in the five years since 2020, running at average of £105 billion across the period. The deficit is commonly defined as annual government spending minus government revenue. Guido Verify could not find evidence in government spending statistics for Mr. Stevenson’s claim that the government “gave” one trillion pounds to the “richest people”…
The biggest items of day-to-day spending this year are projected by the OBR to be health (£190.1 billion), education (£88.8 billion) and defence (£37.5 billion). Stevenson could have sought to refer to government debt – the total figure owed to its creditors – however at £2.7 trillion it is also far off from his figure. Guido Verify will provide pro-bono verification for Stevenson’s figures tonight as he calls for a 2.5% tax on assets over £10 million…
