Labour's wealth tax civil war ramped up today as a Cabinet minister branded the idea 'daft' and told MPs to 'get serious'.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds voiced 'frustration' at mounting demands from left-wingers to milk the rich, warning there is no 'magic' way of bringing in money for the Treasury.

Rachel Reeves is desperately hunting for options to increase taxes as she faces an estimated £30billion black hole in the public finances at the Autumn Budget.

The Chancellor has been stubbornly refusing to rule out a wealth tax, with backbenchers floating a percentage charge on assets to raise £24billion a year. 

But Mr Reynolds has brutally dismissed the prospect in an interview with Chopper's Political Podcast on GB News.

'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 said.

'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.'

'I say to people: ''Be serious about this.'' The idea you can just levy everyone... What if your wealth was not in your bank account, in fine wine or art? 

'How would we tax that? This is why this doesn't exist.

'There's a lot of populism out about this, and I'm frustrated to see it. I see colleagues sometimes say this in Parliament and I say: ''Come on, get serious, get serious.'''

Labour has ruled out increasing income tax, employee national insurance or VAT.

The tax burden is already set to hit a new high as a proportion of GDP after the last Budget imposed a £41billion increase - the biggest on record for a single package. 

That saw Ms Reeves increased the lower rate of Capital Gains Tax from 10 per cent to 18 per cent and the higher rate from 20 per cent to 24 per cent.

But analysts have warned that is already 'backfiring'.

In the first six months of this year the tax raked in £11.8 billion, compared to £13.5billion during the same period in 2024.

The receipts for 2024-25 were around £200million lower than the Treasury's OBR watchdog had anticipated. The body has forecast that revenues will surge in 2025-26.