Won’t anyone think of the poor, persecuted billionaires? When Labour backbencher Lloyd Russell-Moyle told the BBC’s Emma Barnett that he didn’t “think anyone in this country should be a billionaire” on national radio, she reacted as though the Brighton MP had floated nationalising her favourite grandmother. A Tory thinktanker spluttered that it was “all about stopping people’s aspirations”.
If the mega-rich felt they were lacking in political champions, Tony Blair took to the Financial Times to assail Jeremy Corbyn for “attacking ‘dodgy landlords’, ‘billionaires’ and a ‘corrupt’ system”, labelling it “textbook populism” that was no better than Donald Trump’s rhetoric. Challenging those with huge power, influence and wealth, it seems, is no different to scapegoating Muslims, migrants and refugees.