Why the right-wing are so furious at the idea of raising inheritance tax

Read time: 4 mins

In brief…

• Lewis Goodall has suggested the UK government increase inheritance tax, leading to a social media storm, insults and personal criticism from the right-wing on social media.
• He says British people should pay more to the government on assets they inherit, in order to bring down taxes on their personal income, meaning they can do more with the money they’ve earned.
• He says all modern politicians need to understand and adapt to the modern, digital landscape and can only succeed if they can tell an engaging story in this “attention-economy”.

What’s the story?

"Nerd". "Devil". "Communist". “Pathetic”. “Clown”. "Plank".

These are some of the milder things Lewis Goodall was called when he suggested the UK raises inheritance tax while hosting a show on LBC this week.

Currently in the UK, 40% tax is paid on any inherited estate over £325,000.

Lewis believes this should be raised to somewhere between 50% and 70%, with that money reinvested in public services, and to help "level the playing field" in society. He also says it could reduce income tax, if the government is making more money through these means.

"You don't have a right to inherit," he told LBC listeners.

"You should have a right to work while you're alive and get to keep more of your own money.

"That, to me, is way more important than your rights just to inherit some money from mummy and daddy that you did nothing to earn."

What was Lewis trying to suggest?

Lewis began his comments by saying he wanted to see inheritance tax increased to 100% – which he admits was a deliberately "provocative" statement.

"What I was saying is, we are getting to the point where we have way too much tax on labour, on work, on income, and so we should increase taxes on unearned income such as wealth and inheritance, which you've done nothing – in my view – to deserve," he says.

Jon Sopel wasn't one of the people calling Lewis names on social media, but still admits he "completely disagrees" with raising the inheritance tax threshold.

"I think it's the most natural instinct if you have a family, that you want to pass something on to your kids," he says.

"This doesn't matter whether you're rich or you're poor.

"Ordinary families want to leave something for their kids so that maybe they can get a foot on the housing ladder – or whatever else it happens to be."

He adds that if the government was to increase the inheritance tax threshold, it would be like "you're grabbing the live rail" in terms of how many people the move would anger.

Why were people so furious?

Most people in the UK won't be in a position to inherit, or pass on, properties worth more than £325,000, and even if they do, they will only pay the 40% on anything worth more than that amount.

That didn't stop the insults and abuse thrown around online.

"There's something about the online discourse at the moment, and I think it's partly because the online right on Twitter or X have been so dominant for so long now," Lewis says.

"When something that is genuinely alternative, which doesn't fit within their worldview – even though I don't think it's a left wing idea – shakes them and there is this visceral response.

"It's fevered. It's fascinating."

What can be learned by the intensity of the responses?

Lewis says the "provocative" nature of his words, and the response to it, highlights the state of today's hyper-online world, and the way politics has shifted into that sphere. Except, perhaps, Keir Starmer's Labour – which he says could learn something from the more social media savvy politicians of today.

It has been criticised for having a poor communications strategy since coming to power in July 2024, and even when it has achieved something which could be genuinely beneficial to a lot of people in the UK, it has been unable to present it to people in a compelling way.

"You can shape the conversation if you use something innovative and interesting," Lewis says.

"When was the last time the Labour government did that? When was the last time – with their army of communications officers and press officers – when was the last time they did that?"

He says the one politician who has succeeded on social media over the past year is Robert Jenrick, who has engaged clickbait, ragebait and all other forms of attention with powerful, hard-right, video content which has found an audience.

"Jenrick has been made king over the water as a result of it, because he understands how the modern algorithmic attention-economy works," Lewis adds.

"We might not like it, but that is the arena in which politics plays out here."

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.