SIR KEIR STARMER rallied to the support of the rich today as he came under pressure to solve the budget crisis with a wealth tax.

The Prime Minister told MPs that “we can’t just tax your way to growth” after calls from within and without Labour to get the rich to pay more.

Green Party co-Leader Adrian Ramsay told him that he should stand by his pledge that “those with the broadest shoulders must bear the heaviest burden” and make it clear that meant the “ultra-wealthy.”

Sir Keir left himself some wriggle room, however, since when challenged by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch he reaffirmed Labour’s manifesto pledges not to raise income tax, VAT on employees’ National Insurance, but did not commit on Ms Reeves’s other tax plans.

The Chancellor herself was dry-eyed and moderately cheerful at Prime Ministers Questions (PMQs), averting a rerun of last week’s bond market crisis after she was seen weeping.

Former Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford was also pressing the case for a wealth tax, joining former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, who had said at the weekend that the government should explore the idea.

Mr Drakeford told the BBC that Ms Reeves should look at taxing the online gambling industry and banking profits. “I think wealth taxes absolutely need to be looked at,” he added.

“We’re a sharply unequal society. We’ve become more and more unequal. The root of that inequality is the way that wealth is distributed across the population.”

He also backed lifting the two-child benefit cap, likely the next target for back-bench Labour pressure on the government.

A modest wealth tax could raise around £10 billion a year for the hard-pressed Treasury, presently having to both fund a war drive and fight off Labour rebellions against cuts in services and benefits.

In a national poll by YouGov, 18 per cent of the electorate would consider voting for the new left party advocated by independent MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, who were seated together chatting amiably on the Commons opposition benches for the first time today.

More than half of 2024 Green voters and 30 per cent of Labour supporters would consider making the switch, the poll found.