Millionaire trader-turned-campaigner Gary Stevenson's wealth tax plan is 'absolute populist claptrap' and will ruin Britain, say experts

By MARK DUELL, DEPUTY CHIEF REPORTER (DIGITAL) Published: 10:07, 8 July 2026 | Updated: 10:10, 8 July 2026 A wealth tax proposed by millionaire trader-turned-campaigner Gary Stevenson has been branded 'absolute populist claptrap' and 'disastrous' in a new documentary. One billionaire claims he would leave Britain if Mr Stevenson's plans for a 2 per cent annual tax on people with total assets exceeding £10million were implemented. Mr Stevenson is rumoured to have been approached by Andy Burnham's team in recent weeks to discuss financial policy and even become an adviser ahead of the former Greater Manchester Mayor's expected takeover as prime minister. The 39-year-old claims an annual wealth tax would raise up to £24billion for the Treasury annually, but critics have warned Labour that such a policy could drive £100billion out of the country as the rich flee, harming growth, investment and jobs. The former Citibank trader put his controversial plans to entrepreneurs, tax experts, wealthy estate owners and online finance gurus while filming his new Channel 4 programme 'How to Get Filthy Rich with Gary Stevenson' which airs at 9pm tonight. An exclusive clip issued to the Daily Mail this week shows a tax avoidance expert accusing Mr Stevenson of having an 'obsession with solving inequality'. Andrew Henderson is the founder of Nomad Capitalists, a company which helps the wealthy to legally avoid paying tax and keep more money by moving countries. Mr Stevenson asks him in an interview whether he is 'worried about what might happen to inequality if rich people increasingly stop paying taxes'. Gary Stevenson in a publicity photo for 'How to Get Filthy Rich' which airs on Wednesday But Mr Henderson hits back, telling the campaigner: 'You have an obsession with this solving inequality. The world is going to be unequal. Do I think it's entirely fair? 'I don't think life is fair. And I think that fundamentally upsets people who talk about inequality because you feel entitled to rich people's money.' The documentary follows Mr Stevenson, who wrote the bestselling book Trading Game, as he 'explores the growing concentration of wealth in Britain, and whether the solution lies in taxing wealth, rather than income.' Mr Stevenson, who grew up in Ilford, east London, looks at whether a new tax could reverse how wealth is becoming 'increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small number of people'. The postman's son made millions in the City before leaving to become a campaigner on economic inequality. The documentary claims the richest 56 people own as much wealth as 27million people in UK – and the average billionaire grew their wealth by £231million last year. It also says wages in real terms are lower than they were almost 20 years ago - and average student debt in England has soared from £3,200 in 2000 to £53,000 today. Speaking about the concentration of wealth at the top, he says: 'If this continues, it is inevitable that the billionaires and the super-rich will own a larger and larger share of the real wealth of this country, meaning other groups in society, the working class, the middle class, and the government will progressively own less and less.' He meets Bassim Haidar, a Reform Party donor and billionaire entrepreneur who has a £42million London home, who tells Mr Stevenson that he would 'exit' Britain if a wealth tax was introduced. Mr Haidar adds: 'Yeah, even if I sell them [his businesses] at a loss, I don't care. 'Because it becomes a matter of principle. Wealth is mobile, so I'll walk away. I'll walk away. And listen, I'll take a hit for one year, that's fine. But then I'll go, and I'll never come back.' Millionaire trader-turned-campaigner Gary Stevenson is in a new Channel 4 documentary Andrew Henderson is a tax avoidance expert and the founder of Nomad Capitalists But Mr Stevenson responds: 'I think that a lot of these threats are just scaremongering. Rich people generate the majority of their income from owning assets. 'Your house, your supermarket, the farms that grow your food, the power plants that create your energy. Many wealthy people own assets which are fundamentally fixed to this country.' He also visits Francis Fulford, the 29th generation to inherit his family estate in Devon who owns 3,000 acres of land, 24 properties, and an estate worth an estimated £40million. Mr Fulford says: 'The effect of what you're saying is to destroy this. For nearly 1,000 years we've looked after this landscape etc. I plant trees for a hundred years' time for my great-grandson to harvest them.' And Mr Stevenson responds: 'What about everybody else's great-grandsons? What are they going to own?' When Mr Stevenson says the wealth tax would give Mr Fulford a bill of £600,000 a year, the latter replies: 'It would be disastrous, obviously, and so we would probably end up borrowing the money to pay the bl***y taxes, knowing that your government were doomed to perdition. 'Sorry, Gary, your life at the top would be very limited. But we would work out a way to win through, as we've won through every bl***y time over the last 500 years.' Mr Stevenson also speaks to leading tax expert Dan Neidle, founder of the Tax Policy Associates think tank, who labels his idea 'absolute populist claptrap'. Mr Neidle continued: 'The people pushing this should be ashamed of themselves. If the Chancellor stood up and said we're going to have a wealth tax, we're going to have 2 per cent on all wealth over 10 million, it would require, let's be generous, like, a year of planning at least. Mr Stevenson is rumoured to have been approached by Andy Burnham's team in recent weeks 'You then need to build the systems you need to tax 20,000 people. You're not going to raise any revenue from a wealth tax before 2029. You could be in favour of a wealth tax, but anyone claiming that it's an answer is deluded.' When Mr Stevenson pushes back, Mr Neidle goes further and tells him: 'You are unable to separate your emotional reaction to inequality with a rational assessment of the best tools for it.' He adds: 'If you were a proper economist, you would have thought about the foreign investment problem.' But Mr Stevenson responds: 'I'm an inequality economist, and I can see that inequality is causing this massive long-term problem, and I want that to be dealt with.' He also speaks to online finance guru Samuel Leeds, a self-styled property expert with more than 600,000 YouTube subscribers. Mr Stevenson tells him: 'Sometimes I worry with people like yourself, when they speak as if anybody can get rich if you just try. It has a really bad effect on the mental health of young people, especially young men. 'Because in a world where it's so hard to make money, they're being told it's easy to make money if you just try. And the consequence of that logically is if you are poor, if you are not making money, that's your fault.' But Mr Leeds replies: 'Yeah, it's a very nuanced conversation because I could equally argue that people become most depressed when they're not in control. 'Whereas when you actually give people control and say, look it's not going to be easy, it is tough, but you can do something about this. Not get rich but make an extra. £500 a month. I don't think that does cause people mental health issues. 'Certainly the way I am as a human being, [I] would rather focus on my life, my economy, my family.' Mr Stevenson concludes: '100 years ago my grandma was born here in London and three of her siblings died of tuberculosis, a disease of poverty. 'In the course of her lifetime this country changed from a country where ordinary people died of poverty en masse, into a country where people like my parents, like my dad, could get a regular job on a regular wage and buy a house, and raise three kids, and get a pension, and get financial security, and have a retirement, and send all three of those kids to university. 'That happened in the lifetime of my grandmother alongside enormous increases in the taxation of the rich. Increases which have since been reversed. How will we change this country for our grandchildren? I know what I'm betting on, and I know what I'm fighting for.' 'How to Get Filthy Rich with Gary Stevenson' airs on Channel 4 at 9pm tonight