Trickle-down economics 'does not work', says Archbishop of Canterbury

Rich people should pay more tax because trickle-down economics does not work, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.

The Most Rev Justin Welby said the free-market capitalist idea that if high earners see their income increase then the whole economy benefits is not "an effective form of redistribution".

The archbishop said wealthy people may have earned their money but stressed "God does not see what we receive even by our own hard work as ours".

He told BBC Radio 4's World At One: "I think a system that we ensure spreads the goods of wealth more evenly across society is a good system.

"Something that leaves people behind is a very serious problem."

Asked if that meant higher taxes for the wealthy, he replied: "Inevitably it will mean some people will have to pay more.

"I think one of the things, I don't know what the Government thinks about this...but one of the things it seems to me is that the evidence of trickle down as an effective form of redistribution is that it fails, it doesn't work.

"That comes down to an issue of our understanding of human beings and I think there is a chapter on this - that they tend to hold on to what they've got.

"They may even definitely have earned it.

"But one of the things I am saying that you'd expect me to say as an archbishop is that a life centred around God does not see what we receive even by our own hard work as ours."