Activists disrupt Torsten Bell's speech at Labour's conference

Protesters disrupted dual Treasury and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) minister Torsten Bell’s speech at the Fabian Society’s annual Labour Party conference shindig. They shouted demands to “tax the super rich” over the Labour right MP’s simpering sermon.

Activists disrupt Torsten Bell’s speech at Labour conference

Activists from Climate Resistance unveiled banners and chanted “tax the super rich” and “abolish billionaires”. The function, and Bell’s speech, could not continue until security carried the protesters out of the room:

The Fabian Society reception featured speeches from multiple MPs. This included health secretary Wes Streeting, Torsten Bell, and deputy party leader hopefuls Bridget Phillipson and Lucy Powell. It claimed to be “the biggest event at conference”.

The protestors are part of Climate Resistance, a direct action group calling for the government to tax the super-rich out of existence. It has been demanding the government to use their extreme wealth to fund public services and climate action.

The top 10% in the UK hold more wealth than the rest of the population combined. According to YouGov, three quarters of Brits support a wealth tax. The Labour government is facing growing pressure to implement a wealth tax, with major trade unions, including Unite, formally backing the demand.

Cuts to welfare, subsidies to profiteering corporations

The Fabian Society hosted the event in conjunction with Lloyd’s Bank. The bank’s CEO, Charlie Nunn, took home £5.6m in 2024.

Over the past year, campaigners and even some Labour MPs have opposed the government’s cruel welfare cuts, such as the winter fuel allowance or disability support. Bell, of course, as parliamentary under-secretary to the Treasury and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) at the same time, has dutifully backed this neoliberal Labour government’s brutal welfare cuts to the letter.

As the Canary’s Ed Sykes pointed out, the government wheeled out the arrogant Labour right MP to defend the disability benefit cuts. However, the optics of him telling Victoria Derbyshire that, no, he couldn’t live on less than £70 a week because he has “a mortgage to pay” couldn’t have been more out-of-touch if he tried. This was especially so next to the parliamentary register of interests revealing the Observer had paid him £826.69 for 10 hours work – more than £82 an hour. Naturally, that didn’t stop Bell voting through the cuts.

But it was perhaps little surprise given it was the organisation Bell headed up until his election – the Resolution Foundation – that actually proposed some of the cuts.

Meanwhile, Labour has maintained subsidies for companies like Drax, the UK’s largest carbon emitter. The Labour government is also set to award a £2bn military deal to Elbit. The arms company is supplying weapons to genocidal Israel.

Labour: the party of the billionaire capitalist class

Spokesperson for Climate Resistance Sam Simons said:

The mask is off: Labour is clearly the party of the billionaires. While our government sips champagne with the super rich and celebrates another year of plunging disabled people into poverty, it’s the rest of us who suffer. Cuts to public services, an escalating climate crisis, and funds for genocidal arms dealers: this is a party of the billionaires, not of the people.

By ignoring calls to tax extreme wealth and tackle soaring inequality, this government is setting the scene for the rise of the far right. We urgently need to tax the super rich out of existence and use their extreme wealth to fund climate action and public services.

Feature image via screengrab.