A WEALTH tax on the richest people to boost jobs and aid recovery from the coronavirus pandemic should be considered by the government, shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said today.

In her first major speech since she was appointed to the role in April she told the government “to not increase taxes or cut support for low and middle-income people” during the crisis.

She said that a “new settlement” was needed which taxes the assets of wealthy people rather than income in order to address the injustice of the poorest paying more tax proportionally than high earners.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is due to set out his latest update on the economy next week in a “summer economic update” speech.

Ms Dodds called on him to deliver a “back-to-work Budget” with a “focus on jobs, jobs and jobs again.”

She added: “What we are hearing from the government on the economy is worrying.

“Worrying that, yet again, they plan to take a hands-off approach to helping business and people’s livelihoods.

“Worrying that the Chancellor is reported to have said he ‘shouldn’t be picking winners.’

“As if supporting a local pub or family-run restaurant that has been boarded up at the direction of government is somehow cheating the natural order of things.

“Worrying that some press reports suggested the Chancellor was considering putting off his summer economic update in order to wait and see what happens this weekend when more of the lockdown lifts … Waiting to see is not a strategy.”

Her intervention came as Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it would not be “healthy” for the furlough scheme to continue beyond its end date in October.

Ms Dodds called on ministers to adopt a “targeted strategy” in extending the furlough scheme  which has seen the government meet up to 80 per cent of workers’ wages  to avoid a “flood of redundancy notices.”

The schemes should be used as “economic sandbags” to ensure localised second waves of Covid-19 such as in Leicester “don’t wash away businesses and jobs in their wake,”  she added.

Thousands of jobs are being cut in sectors such as retail, the arts and aviation, three of the hardest-hit industries during the Covid-19 crisis since Britain went into lockdown on March 23.

More redundancies are feared as the furlough scheme will be scaled back from August and employers will be required to contribute more to wages and benefits.