Economist Gary Stevenson has been praised following his appearance on Question Time, where he got into a debate with GB News presenter Camilla Tominey about a wealth tax.
Stevenson, who has risen to prominence in recent weeks through his calls for a wealth tax on millionaires and billionaires in the UK, was one of the five panel members on Thursday’s edition of Question Time.
Alongside him were Treasury minister Darren Jones, Conservative MP Richard Holden, Lid Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper and Daily Telegraph journalist and GB News presenter Camilla Tominey.
The first question of the night related to Rachel Reeves’ spring statement from this week in which she announced Labour would be introducing more cuts to the welfare bill.
When asked who should “plug the deficit, benefit claimants or billionaires,” Stevenson was quick to explain why he believes a wealth tax is the answer to Britain’s problems.
He pointed out how such taxes had worked to redistribute wealth in the mid 20th century, and how the rich had got richer following Covid.
The suggestion of a wealth tax didn’t go down too well with Tominey though. Using the argument of Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who lives in Monaco, she argued billionaires would leave the UK if a wealth tax was implemented, and end up paying nothing to the Treasury at all.
Stevenson took her to task on this, and pointed out how loopholes are often put into tax law that seem to target the rich, allowing them to avoid said tax anyway.
As Tominey floundered, trying to claim it wouldn’t be possible to make sure the money from a tax went to the right people and not “train drivers,” Stevenson continued to dismantle her argument.
Reacting on X, some said he “humiliated” the journalist, and Stevenson was roundly praised for his Question Time appearance.
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