Gary Lineker leads British millionaires telling Burnham: ‘We want to pay more tax’
Gary Lineker joined more than 100 British millionaires calling on Andy Burnham to tax their wealth more, telling the new prime minister: “We can afford it.”
Mr Burnham has previously signaled his intention to overhaul the tax system to fund his policy ambitions as prime minister.
On Thursday, a group of more than 100 UK-based millionaires, including Lineker, screenwriter Richard Curtis, novelist Val McDermid and former City trader Gary Stevenson, signed a letter calling on Mr Burnham to tax their wealth.
The letter, issued by Patriotic Millionaires UK, states: “We want you to tax us. We can afford it. We are talking about higher taxes on the richest whose income comes from the wealth they hold, not those who get up and go to work every day for their income.”
The Prime Minister is told that millionaires are a “patriotic bunch” who “love this country and we want it to succeed”.
“As you embrace this new path, please consider taxing us properly as our contribution to it. We love this country. It’s time for a better Britain; it’s time for everyone here to feel Great Britain. It’s time to tax us super-rich,” the letter says.
Mr Burnham has previously refused to rule out a wealth tax, telling former footballer Lineker his government “could ask for a bit more” earlier this month.
There are several ways the government could introduce a wealth tax. The most proposed plan is a 2 percent tax on the assets of the richest people in the country, which experts say could raise billions of dollars each year.
Lineker said: “Paying your fair share is a core British value, but many ordinary people are already paying more than they can afford. Our richest people can do more, and many want it. To live up to our national values, our new government must raise taxes on extreme levels of wealth for a fairer, better, more hopeful Britain.”
In an interview earlier this month, Mr Burnham also suggested there was “some room” in the Labor manifesto for “action on tax”.
It comes just days after a row broke out within the Labor Party over how Mr Burnham would fund his cost-of-living policy offensive. Since taking office on Monday, the new prime minister has announced that most bus fares in England will be capped at £2 and has also promised an £850 million tax cut on electricity bills.
Darren Jones, a key ally of former prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, who lost his cabinet post on Monday when Mr Burnham took office, claimed the VAT cut had not been funded.
The government said the move would be partly funded by the scrapping of Sir Keir’s national digital identity plan. However, the estimated savings of £600 million a year over three years falls short of the annual cost to the Exchequer of the energy bills tax cut.
Conservative shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride accused the government of failing to answer fundamental questions about the funding of its policy commitments.
he said BBC Breakfast: “And right now, in the context of a very constrained economy and a very fragile fiscal situation in terms of debt, debt servicing costs, etc., you can’t have a government going in there and making a lot of spending commitments without being able to fully explain how those commitments are going to be financed.”
Patriotic Millionaires UK have called on the government to impose a 2 per cent tax on wealth over £10 million, which they say could raise £24 billion a year for the country.
They also say reforms to capital gains tax, including aligning it with income tax, could raise a further £12bn.
Patriotic Millionaires UK member Julia Davies added: “This is a new opportunity for our country. It’s a chance for the Prime Minister to help rebalance power, reduce the shocking levels of wealth inequality that are intensifying the crisis of survival, and improve lives for everyone by raising much-needed income for our public services.”
“We millionaires are here to get more taxes and we urge our new prime minister to seize this opportunity with both hands and tax our wealth.”
Earlier this week academics claimed that a 2 per cent tax on households with assets of more than £100 million would raise £10 billion a year in revenue and affect fewer than 1,000 of the richest households in the UK.
Economists Gabriel Zucman and Ben Tippet said the tax would “raise meaningful revenues and reduce runaway inequality.”
Full signatories:
Alexander Alanin
Antonio Amaral
Susan Angoy
Cal Bailey
David Barker
mike barnes
Brian Basham
Sasha Bates
Gareth Bayliss
Robin Beal
Derek Bennett
Michael Berners-Lee
Andy Bilson
Jonathan Bloch
Nacim Bougheda
Andrew Bowles
Chris Brown
David Burall
Fiona Campbell
Mark Campbell
Tim Carey
William Carman
John Cossins
Richard Curtis
Julia Davies
Juan Jose del Rio
Nicholas Easter
Stephen Einhorn
Nicola Elliott
Brian Eno
David Farrell
Chris Frith
Dawn Gerhold
Edward Gildea
James Golding
Stephen Gosling CBE
Ian Gregg
Lauren Gupta
Richard Hagan
Vivien Hallebard
Dominik Hamon
David Eller
William Hartree
Carolyn Hayman
Tom Hearn
David Heffernan
Peter Hill
Graham Hobson
Becky Holmes
Patrick Hort
Diane Isenberg
Kristina Johansson
Patricia Johnstone
Susie Jolly
Jenny Kagan
Sunil Kapur
Hussein Kassai
Colleen Keck
Stephen Kinsella
Ramana Kumar
Jean Latenser
Barry Lea
Nick Levey
Gary Lineker
Bruce Lloyd
Harry Longman
Sam Lupton
Fred Macmillan
Louisa Mann
Doro Marden
Nick Marple
Sophie Marple
Madelyn Martinez
Samantha Mayaveram
Val McDermid
Gemma McGough-Colin
Ben Medlock
Tim Nottidge
Lesley Omara
Charlie Orton
Roy Phillips
Nick Powell
David Pugh
Nick Razey
David Richards
Andrew Richards
mark robinson
Sarah Rossi
Georgios Samaras
David Seaward
Mark Seow
Susan Seymour
Anika Sharma
Lawrence Shaw
Alan Sherwell
Paul Sherwood
Akshay Singal
Adam Singer
Geetie Singh-Watson
Guy Singh-Watson
Alastair Singleton
Alan Smith
Nathan Spencer
Heather Stevens
Gary Stevenson
John Stickley
Tim Stumpff
Peter Sundgren
Ben Tibbits
Rebecca Tinsley
Jennifer Tomkins
Willem van Hoorn
Matthew Varnham
Edward Vickery
Suzanne Bilge
Phil White
Leticia White
Vicki Wilkinson
rodney wright
Barnaby Wynter
