FORMER LABOUR LEADER LORD KINNOCK ON WEALTH TAX IDEA

NEIL Kinnock has joined calls to scrap the controversial two-child benefit cap.

- BY ASHLEY COWBURN Deputy Political Editor

And the former Labour leader wants a Robin Hood wealth tax to lift kids out of poverty.

He accuses the Tories of leaving the country in a state that would “make Charles Dickens furious” with “intolerable” hardship.

Ditching the two-child benefit limit would be the “immediate and direct way of trying to correct the conditions the government inherited”.

He says: “They may not be able to do it all at once but I really want them to move in that direction because it would mean that about 600,000 fewer kids are in poverty.”

The 83-year-old son of a Welsh coalminer says the super-rich should pay more tax because they are getting even wealthier - and most voters back the idea.

He tells us: “I think people would see the justification of increasing taxes on assets and the very, very highly paid - I'm talking about the top 1% - in order to make the transfer directly to reduce child poverty.

Legacy

“I know it's the economics of Robin Hood but I don't think there is anything terribly bad about that.”

Lord Kinnock has previously said a 2% levy on asset values over £10million could bring in around £11billion for the Treasury.

He explains: “The thing is we live in a fair country where the instincts are fair, so people approve of the idea of the broadest backs bearing the heaviest burden.

“Of course the very rich do make a substantial contribution. It’s not enough. And it hasn't kept pace with the increase in their asset wealth.

“Simple, straightforward as that.”

Labour's leader from 1983 to 1992 wants to see a reform of the “unjust” tax system “in the name of fairness”.