Elon Musk’s trillion-dollar pay package should be a call to action for Labour this budget

Tesla shareholders recently voted to approve a record-breaking deal that could make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. This is both a warning sign and an opportunity for politicians. It’s time Keir Starmer’s government woke up to both. For his popularity, and for the good of the country. 

As Musk danced with robots to celebrate his windfall, chancellor Rachel Reeves’s chaotic pre-budget speech included nothing about new taxes on the wealth of the super-rich.

Meanwhile, since Donald Trump was welcomed to Windsor Castle for tea with the prime minister, the government has been secretly considering a new tax break for tech billionaires. As Reform continues to poll above Labour, this kowtowing to the super rich is disastrous, and here’s why.

Every billionaire is a policy failure. Our schools are crumbling under our children’s feet. Ambulance waiting times will carry on killing people this winter. All while, according to the IMF, the UK is the sixth largest economy in the world. What’s the point in all of this money if we’re still sick and miserable?

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Labour won the last election on a promise of change. So where is it? There’s still more billionaires than ever and more food banks than ever. If Starmer doesn’t do something, the British public may never forgive him – and why should they? Lives depend on what he does next. 

Taxing the rich is popular with voters. At Everyone Hates Elon, our campaign actions targeting billionaires are regularly seen and supported by millions of people. Meanwhile, polls show three quarters of Brits support wealth taxes. 

Sure, people respect hard work, but billionaires represent anything but that. Elon Musk’s new pay packet is more than the GDP of both Ireland and Sweden. But 60% of billionaire wealth is unearned, coming from either inheritance, cronyism and corruption, with Musk born into South African wealth himself.

Meanwhile, without ordinary workers billionaires would have nothing. To make profits they need workers to keep the trains running and build the roads. It’s even more stomach churning then that our bizarre tax rules mean that Amazon-owner Jeff Bezos pays a lower rate of tax than the average nurse does. 

Beyond just being popular with voters, research also shows that the most effective way to appeal to Reform voters is to address the corporate power that Musk represents. 

Instead of looking down on voters who want to blame someone, we should point the finger at the right people: the super rich, not immigrants. That’s why we’ve launched billboards across the UK highlighting billionaires who should be paying more into UK services, in the run up to the budget.

Some suggest philanthropy is the answer. But Elon Musk proves that the super rich must be forced. In 2019 Elon Musk promised to donate $6 billion to solve world hunger if the UN gave him a plan. When the UN delivered him a fully costed plan to do just that he ignored it. Now he’s funding the legal costs of far-right activist Tommy Robinson. 

We’re told if we tax them, billionaires will leave the UK. But are we supposed to believe that James Dyson, who owns more land than the King in this country, will dig all that land up and move it to Dubai? It’s a load of rubbish. A recent report by LSE showed that most of Britain’s wealthiest individuals won’t move, they are too attached to culture in London, their family and the reputation of the UK for their business.

Media headlines panicked about a millionaire exodus. It never happened. But for those that will, let’s put in place an exit-tax: this would tax any income and wealth made in the UK when someone leaves. Hoards of other countries have it, why can’t we? 

As we struggle to afford even the supermarket basics, people across the world are demanding an end to this disgusting inequality. Most Americans support taxes on wealth and in France, the demand for wealth taxes is so high it has led to uprisings on the street and a government standstill. As the cost of the climate crisis grows too, these cries will only get louder, and our services even more stretched without a new influx of funds.

There are 154 billionaires in the UK, while 4.5 million children live in poverty. There’s simply no way the government should ditch the digital services tax when it could bring in up to a billion pounds. It’s time to make billionaires – and the soon to be trillionaires – pay what they owe us. We demand at least a 2% tax on assets, an exit tax for those who try to run and a mansion tax. The evidence supports it. The public is ready. The question is: are Labour?

Everyone Hates Elon is a campaign group exposing billionaires and their politician friends and aiming to give power back to ordinary people. They are known for viral campaign stunts, like unveiling a banner of Trump and Epstein at Windsor Castle, helping to force Jeff Bezos to move his Venice wedding and trolling Elon Musk’s Tesla.

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