• I WRITE as a local activist in the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) in response to London Labour Assembly Member Murad Qureshi’s comments on the Covid-19 crisis, (Where your masks in busy outdoor spaces, January 14).

Mr Qureshi insists that “…the government must immediately increase the support available for those who need to self-isolate, increasing statutory sick pay so it is equivalent to the London Living Wage; and abolishing NRPF, no recourse to public funds”.

We Communists fully endorse the Assembly Member’s justifiably forceful demands. As a trained economist, however, Mr Qureshi must know that these go nowhere near far enough.

Allow me to draw his attention, and that of your readers, to a radical initiative being launched by the Workers Party under the leadership of George Galloway.

An online petition, which we enthusiastically support, calls for a one-off 5 per cent Covid tax on fortunes exceeding £10million.

The top six richest people in the UK have an estimated combined wealth of £39.4billion. The richest one per cent of people here own the same wealth as 80 per cent of the country.

It is estimated that the UK has 4,640 “ultra-high net worth individuals”, with personal wealth in excess of £80million each.

A one-off 5 per cent tax on these individuals alone would see the richest 4,640 people in our society contribute more than £17billion to the Treasury, money that could be spent on proper jobs, decent pay, renewed infrastructure, social housing and front-line health care.

I hope your readers, Mr Qureshi among them, will use their search engines to type in “workers party covid” and sign the petition. Crucially, it urges the Labour Party to adopt the tax as official policy.

STEVE COOK
Marquis Road, N4