It is time to reject rule by and for the millionaires in favour of the millions

We now know from this week’s Sunday Times Rich List that the billionaires are getting richer by the day whilst the rest of the country faces austerity and lengthening dole queues for the young. Shockingly, the richest 1000 gained an extra £155 billion in the last 3 years alone.

We also know Boris Johnson’s response to the current situation. He is the Tory Mayor of one of the most divided cities in Europe where extravagant wealth cohabits alongside great poverty. Stark figures reveal that the poorest 50% of Londoners have less than 5% of financial or property wealth. The richest 10% now have 65% of financial wealth and over 45% of property wealth.

But Boris sees nothing wrong with this. Not content with Osborne’s tax handout which gave an extra £5000 per week to anyone on a salary of £5 million and took money away from pensioners and working families, he now wants to see further tax cuts for the millionaires.

Some people might want to continue to regard “Boris” as a mere buffoon – harmless, affable and entertaining. He is far more dangerous than that. He emerged out of the very core of the 1%, and is located at the centre of the most dangerous group within an already dangerous Conservative Party.

If the Tories regain the mayoralty on Thursday, they will feel emboldened to continue on their divisive course. In particular, because Mayor Johnson plays a particular role as a cheerleader for the Conservative Right, his wing of the Tories will feel strengthened.

A Boris Johnson victory would embolden Osborne and unleash a further dynamic within the Tory party to tighten the austerity.

These are the stakes which are in play in the mayoral election.

For those who find this argument exaggerated or hard to believe, we should recall that he was amongst the first to advocate a tax payback to the richest in our country.

It was Boris Johnson who took up the cause for a reduction in the 50% tax rate almost as soon as Labour announced the higher rate. Long before Osborne took the decision to cut the top rate of tax and put huge sums of money back into the pockets of the top 1 per cent, Mayor Johnson was calling for double the tax giveaway for the very richest, supporting a cut to just 40%.

Now we see once again Boris acting as a right wing outrider for the 1% with his suggestion of further tax reductions in this week’s Sunday Telegraph, aimed not a helping the millions of Londoners bearing the brunt of his party’s austerity drive, but at benefiting the vested interests in the City.

Under the Coalition led by Boris’s Tory colleagues, the UK has slipped back into a disastrous and avoidable recession. Millions of Londoners are facing huge pressure on their family budgets thanks to the complete failure of Tory policies – endorsed and promoted by Johnson – to protect the interests of the public and deliver jobs and growth.

Boris’s now infamous “chicken feed” comments- referring to the £250,000 per year income he receives for a second job writing for the Telegraph on top of his Mayoral responsibilities – confirm just how obscenely out of touch he really is.

While he rakes in this “chicken feed”, more than 400,000 London pensioners have lost money through the Tory ‘granny tax’ to pay for a tax cut for the super rich. And almost 120,000 London families face losing all of their tax credits because of the Tory tax credit cuts.

It is irresponsible of many in the commentariat to ignore these issues and to pretend that the mayoral election is only a battle between two personalities with no real national consequence for the wider society. Do not believe this even for a second.

We can’t let the Tories get away with it. A second term for a Tory Mayor will have consequences for us all. On Friday Mr Clegg encountered mothers who are going without meals in order to feed their children. He said you would have to have a cold heart not to be affected as if their plight had nothing to do with the Government of which he is the Deputy Prime Minister.

But the voters must not think, like Clegg, that they can wash their hands of responsibility for their actions on Thursday if they fail to vote against the Tories. Let every elector in London understand that their actions on Thursday can either accelerate the austerity or contribute to the resistance.

It is time to resist.

Related posts:

1. Why ‘millions versus the millionaires’ isn’t the slogan we need
2. Labour should be standing for the millions not the millionaires
3. One rule for his mates, one rule for others – this storm raises real questions of direction and leadership
4. Isn’t it time to reject Bush’s foreign policy?
5. Boris – Part-time Mayor?