Scottish Socialist Party by-election candidate Collette Bradley has pledged to lodge a parliamentary Bill levying a 5% wealth tax on all millionaires, as one of her first actions if elected to the Scottish parliament by the people of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse.
Collette Bradley said: “I’ve been out on the streets with teams of SSP members speaking to local people, and our call for a 5% wealth tax on all millionaires has been massively popular.
“When we say, ‘tax the rich’, shoppers stop to talk to us, drivers toot their horns and give us clenched fists, and hundreds sign the SSP petition making this demand.
“We find people are astonished when we explain that this one measure would raise £260billion in a single year, equivalent to the entire Scottish government’s budget for four whole years, for all the jobs and services it deals with!
“There’s no excuse for poverty in such a rich nation, yet a million people in Scotland live below the breadline, including nearly a quarter of all kids. That’s shameful when you look at the wealth around.
“And poverty is poised to get worse under the Labour government, whose own figures admit Labour’s planned cuts to sickness and disability benefits will drive another 250,000 into poverty, 50,000 children included.
“There are many things unique about the policies and principles of the Scottish Socialist Party, and this is one of them.
“All the parties of the Establishment are of and for the millionaire minority.
“The SSP wants to tax the rich – and specifically levy a 5% wealth tax on all millionaires – to use Scotland’s fabulous wealth for the millions who need it, not the millionaires who hoard it.
“The SSP’s wealth tax proposal could provide a £15-an-hour guaranteed minimum wage to all workers aged 16+ to eliminate the crime of poverty pay.
“It could provide massive investment in staff and equipment to provide a publicly-owned, first class NHS, free at the point of need, fit for the demands of the 21 st century.
“It could provide free public transport for all, on buses, trains, ferries and subways, to combat poverty, pollution and social isolation.
“It could fund the reversal of all Labour’s vicious cuts to pensioners’ Winter Fuel Payment, their theft of £5billion from sick and disabled people’s incomes, and compensate the 330,000 WASPI women in Scotland who had their pensions plundered.
“I think the people of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse face a stark choice on 5 June: continued poverty amidst plenty, with all the parties of the millionaire class leaving their grotesque wealth in the hands of this tiny minority – or the socialist alternative of taxing the millionaires and super rich to provide a massive boost to the standard of living of millions of people who need it.”
