'She would hate what you just said': Watch ex-minister tell Beth Rigby what Rachel Reeves should do on tax

A former Labour minister has said she wants Rachel Reeves to consider the "evidence" behind introducing a wealth tax in the UK.

Anneliese Dodds, who quit as international development minister in February over Sir Keir Starmer's decision to slash the overseas aid budget, said she believed it was "important" that the government considers "who has the broadest shoulders". Politics latest: Starmer accused of 'appeasement' by Netanyahu Speaking to Beth Rigby on the Sky News Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Ms Dodds, the MP for Oxford East, said there had been a "lot of discussion" about a wealth tax - a direct levy on all, or most of, an individual's, household's or business's total net wealth, rather than their income.

Ms Dodds, who also served as shadow chancellor when Labour was in opposition, said she had been "a bit sceptical about some of those claims for a long time because, of course, wealth is taxed in the UK". However, she said work carried out by the Wealth Tax Commission in 2020 had looked at various types of international wealth taxes and how it would be possible to deliver one in a UK context.

She added: "I would hope the Treasury is considering that kind of evidence, as well as other changes that have been put forward." The former cabinet minister also said that tax proposals outlined by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to Rachel Reeves should be "considered". In a memo that was leaked to the Daily Telegraph in May, Ms Rayner suggested to the chancellor that she increase taxes, including reinstating the pensions lifetime allowance and a higher corporation tax level for banks.

"We've seen the deputy leader of the Labour Party, for example, put forward suggestions as I understand it," Ms Dodds said. "I think it's important for all of those to be considered now." Responding to the call for a wealth tax, the chancellor said the government has "got to get the balance right on taxation".

Read more:Sir Keir Starmer's significant breakthrough Gary Neville hits out at national insurance rise "Decisions around tax are decisions that are made at a budget and we'll make those decisions in the appropriate way, but the number-one priority of this government is to grow the economy," she told broadcasters. "And that means bringing more investment into Britain, creating more good jobs paying decent wages here in Britain.

"We've got to get the balance right on taxation because we want that investment, we want those jobs to come here. "That's why we're reforming the planning system, secured three trade deals in the first year of this Labour government, cutting back on unnecessary regulation, and reforming our pension system to unlock money for businesses to be able to invest here in the UK." Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds last month branded the suggestion "daft".

"This Labour government has increased taxes on wealth as opposed to income - the taxes on private jets, private schools, changes through inheritance tax, capital gains tax," he told GB News last month. "But the idea there's a magic wealth tax, some sort of levy...that doesn't exist anywhere in the world.

"Switzerland has a levy, but they don't have capital gains or inheritance tax. There's no kind of magic.

We're not going to do anything daft like that." Ms Dodds said that while she had not spoken directly with Ms Reeves about a wealth tax, she believed the "trade-off we have to consider in a world of lots of difficult trade-offs is potentially making some big and significant changes early, or having to make many tactical changes through the parliament and potentially being forced into some of those difficult decisions anyway later on"..