By Andrew MacAskill
LONDON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Britain's opposition Labour Party
will on Tuesday take aim at "obscene" billionaires, pledging a
radical redistribution of wealth to cut the power of the super
rich who it says bankroll Prime Minister Boris Johnson in return
for tax breaks.
The two main political parties are showcasing starkly
different visions for the world's fifth largest economy ahead of
the Dec. 12 election. The Conservatives are promising to deliver
Brexit while Labour says it wants to be the most radical
socialist government in British history.
Labour said almost a third of Britain’s 151 billionaires
have donated more than 50 million pounds ($64.8 million) to the
Conservatives since 2005 in return for tax breaks for the
wealthy and corporations worth 100 billion pounds.
John McDonnell, the party's finance minister-in-waiting,
will say in a speech he wants to "rewrite the rules of our
economy", casting the election as a chance to overthrow a system
where billionaires can buy access to power.
"No one needs or deserves to have that much money, it is
obscene," McDonnell will say, according to excepts of his
speech. "It is also obscene that these billionaires are buying
access and tax breaks to Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party."
Labour’s core message -- a pledge to redistribute wealth to
the many and not the few -- was a theme it used in the 2017
election, when the party confounded the polls to deprive then
Prime Minister Theresa May of her parliamentary majority.
Labour hopes the message will propel them to power as they
trail Johnson's party in the opinion polls.
The party's economic policies, which would represent one of
the most radical assaults on capitalism seen in a major western
economy, include nationalising the rail, utility and water
companies, confiscating 10% of big companies’ shares, a move to
a four-day week and higher taxes on the wealthy.
Last month, Labour named prominent billionaires such as
landowner Hugh Grosvenor, Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley, Ineos
CEO Jim Ratcliffe, hedge fund manager Crispin Odey and U.S.
media tycoon Rupert Murdoch as representatives of Britain’s
“rigged system”.
McDonnell said the slogan "taking back control" used by
supporters of leaving the EU in the 2016 referendum was
mobilised to great effect because many people rightly felt that
they have little control over their lives.
"Decisions are made about the companies or services they
work in over which they have no say and no influence," McDonnell
will say. "Labour will rewrite the rules of our economy. It’s
all about treating people fairly and with the respect they
deserve"
The Conservatives said Labour's tax plans will not hit
billionaires and will instead overwhelmingly hurt hard pressed
families.
"Labour will massively ramp up spending and would hammer
ordinary people with an extra 2,400 taxes pounds every year,"
said Simon Clarke, a junior finance minister.
(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)