Who are the ‘undeserving rich’?

Westminster isn’t sure. But it’s suddenly obsessed with them

Recently, one Tory cabinet member went for dinner at a top London hotel with some of the most famous members of the financial elite. Good food and better wine: it was the kind of occasion that, in days gone by, would have turned into an orgy of mutual self-congratulation. But the world has changed. The bankers spent the evening attacking the Conservative party for not doing enough to defend them. The cabinet member became steadily more irritated, and as soon as he left the hotel, turned to a friend and decried ‘the obscene arrogance of these people’. The contempt, it seems, is now mutual.

Now is not a good time to be rich in Britain. This Tory’s hostility towards the wealthy is just a single example of a mood that’s seized hold of Westminster. A decade ago, millionaires and billionaires were feted uncritically by the leaderships of both parties.