Re your report (Super-rich ready to flee, fearing Corbyn threat to ‘go after’ the elite, 2 November), I’d like to echo the words of New York governor Andrew Cuomo on hearing that Donald Trump was declaring himself a resident of Florida instead of New York City: “Good riddance. It’s not like Mr Trump paid taxes here anyway.” The UK super-rich have never paid their fair share of taxes, which is part of why they are super-rich.

You quote stockbroker Peter Hargreaves saying that he employed about 1,700 people and had “created a vast amount of wealth for this country”. But stockbrokers do not create wealth for the UK. They create it for a few wealthy individuals who mostly keep it in tax havens. The super-rich have created a whole industry out of avoiding taxes – which no doubt accounts for many of the 1,700 people Hargreaves employs.

Part of the problem is that deregulation and globalisation of the finance industry makes it all too easy for the super-rich to launder their money. Accounting for all their income is next to impossible because international tax law lags far behind the reality of globalised finance.

Let the super-rich all follow Sir James Dyson to the authoritarian dystopia of Singapore and never set foot in the UK again, or let them make a contribution to the UK commensurate with their vast and unimaginable wealth.

Billionaires would not exist in a fair society. The super-rich have far more influence than any citizen should have over our nation. And now they threaten to punish us if we vote for a leader who puts the interests of the majority ahead of the interests of the billionaires?

Michael Attwood

Cambridge

• Further to your heartbreaking story about the “super-rich” leaving the country if Jeremy Corbyn becomes prime minister, I am wondering whether anyone will take the trouble to ask the 14 million poor in this country if they would like to leave, should Boris Johnson win the election and the Tories get another term in office.

Russell Prett

Sydenham, London

• Nicholas Shaxson’s article on the scale of tax avoidance globally, and the harm it inflicts, is a timely reminder for Labour on how taxation should be at the heart of its election campaign (To defeat the world’s crooks, shrink the City, 29 October). With Britain the biggest player in the tax haven game, Jeremy Corbyn and his team must realise that bland promises about tackling tax evasion and avoidance will not suffice. Voters have heard this many times from all parties with no real effect.

In order to have an impact, the Labour manifesto should include precise details which then have to be repeated at every opportunity by every candidate. He or she should have the exact same figures to hand, from how much is lost every year in the UK to how many tax inspector jobs in HMRC will be created after the Tory and Lib Dem cull.

John McDonnell has already promised “the most comprehensive plan ever seen in the UK” to tackle the problem, with legislation necessary to force tax transparency on UK crown dependencies, to reveal the owners of companies hiding assets. More voter-friendly policies can be added. The distinction between tax avoidance and evasion could be ended, with both being made criminal offences. It could be made illegal to make financial gain from advising on, or creating, avoidance schemes – and the honours system could be reformed to exclude tax avoiders and people working in companies avoiding tax. Almost three-quarters of companies given major contracts by recent Tory governments have operations based in tax havens: Labour could promise that any such companies will be refused any government contracts.

Bernie Evans

Liverpool

• I was disappointed to read your article (‘The privileged few’: five super-rich figures in opposition’s sights, 1 November). While it is of course important to highlight Labour’s policies and Corbyn’s speeches, there is no need to accentuate what is clearly an inappropriate thirst for individuals’ blood.

It is not the government’s job to go after individuals, it is its job to regulate and ensure laws are obeyed. The individuals listed in your article may indeed be insalubrious, but that is not the point. They are citizens of this country who, like all of us, take advantage of the laws as they currently stand. We should of course seek to prevent the ills that they perpetuate (zero-hours contracts, the reduction in social housing) but to demonise them on a personal basis is inappropriate, unhelpful and – more worryingly – injurious to civil debate. In short, you are legitimising a witch-hunt.

Rose Grey

London

• Boris Johnson may use casual rhetoric about dying in a ditch, but for some people, the possibility of premature death is all too real. Ministry of Justice figures confirm that suicides are on the rise among offenders by a significant number (Report, 1 October). Austerity and damaging government decisions have wrecked public and voluntary services. Offenders and others who live with poverty, homelessness and mental health problems are left without support, unable to reintegrate into society.

Tory policies have not only led to hardship but desperation and death – see your articles in September and October on the homeless deaths of Aimee Teese, Jake Humm, Kane Walker, Gyula Remes and Catherine Kenny. The Brexit debate must not obscure the urgent need to end this callous indifference to people with difficult lives.

Liz Udall

Carshalton, London

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters

• Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition