Gary Lineker has joined more than 100 British-based millionaires in calling on Andy Burnham to tax their wealth more, telling the new prime minister: “We can afford it.” For the country’s business owners, the detail behind the plea matters as much as the gesture.
On Thursday, a group of over 100 UK-based millionaires, including Lineker, screenwriter Richard Curtis, novelist Val McDermid and ex-City trader Gary Stevenson, signed a letter urging Mr Burnham to tax their wealth. It was organised by campaign group Patriotic Millionaires UK.
“We want you to tax us. We can afford it,” the letter says. “We’re not talking about higher taxes on those who get up and go to work for their income every day, but on the very richest whose income is derived from the wealth they hold.”
The signatories describe themselves as a “patriotic bunch” who “love this country and we want it to succeed”. Lineker added: “Paying your fair share is a basic British value, but so many ordinary people are already paying more than they can afford. Our richest people can do more and most want to. 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.”
The numbers are where owners of ambitious firms should pay attention. Patriotic Millionaires UK has called on the government to place a 2 per cent tax on wealth over £10m, which it says could raise £24bn a year. It also argues that reforms to capital gains tax, including equalising the rate with income tax, could raise a further £12bn.
That combination would land squarely on founders and family business owners, many of whom are already navigating pared-back reliefs on the sale of a company. A levy pegged to assets rather than income also raises the perennial question of illiquid wealth: a stake in a private business is not a bank balance you can dip into to settle a tax bill.
The campaign draws on fresh academic work. Economists Gabriel Zucman and Ben Tippet estimate that a 2 per cent charge on households with more than £100m in assets would raise £10bn a year and affect fewer than 1,000 of the wealthiest households in the UK. The tax would “raise meaningful revenues and dampen runaway inequality”, they said.
Mr Burnham has declined to rule out a wealth tax, telling Lineker earlier this month that his government may “ask for a little more”. In a separate interview he suggested there is “some room” in the Labour manifesto for “movement on tax”.
The plea lands amid a row over how the new prime minister will fund his cost-of-living blitz. Since taking office on Monday, Mr Burnham has capped most bus fares in England at £2 and promised an £850m tax cut on electricity bills. Darren Jones, an ally of Sir Keir Starmer who lost his cabinet post this week, claimed the energy bills cut was unfunded. The government says it will be paid for in part by scrapping Sir Keir’s national digital ID scheme, though the estimated £600m a year in savings falls short of the annual cost.
For the SME community, already wary of what a Burnham premiership means, that funding gap is the nub of the matter. Conservative shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride told BBC Breakfast: “And in the context of a very constrained economy at the moment, in terms of debt, debt servicing costs, and so on, and a very fragile fiscal situation, you cannot be a government that goes out there and makes lots of spending commitments without being able to explain exactly how those commitments are going to be funded.”
The signatories insist the answer sits with the very rich, not the high street. Julia Davies, a member of Patriotic Millionaires UK, said the moment could “reduce the shocking levels of wealth inequality which intensifies the cost of living crisis, and raise much-needed revenue for our public services”. The idea that wealth taxes could generate meaningful sums has gained traction. Whether that revenue helps small businesses or simply reshapes the incentives for the people who back them is the question owners will be watching.
Signatories in full
Alexander Alanine · 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 (screenwriter and film director) · Julia Davies (investor, Patriotic Millionaires UK) · Juan Jose del Rio · Nicholas Easter · Stephen Einhorn · Nicola Elliott · Brian Eno (musician and producer) · David Farrell · Chris Frith · Dawn Gerhold · Edward Gildea · James Golding · Stephen Gosling CBE · Ian Gregg (former chairman of Greggs) · Lauren Gupta · Richard Hagan · Vivien Hallebard · Dominic Hamon · David Hands · 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 · Hussayn Kassai · Colleen Keck · Stephen Kinsella · Ramana Kumar · Jean Latenser · Barry Lea · Nick Levey · Gary Lineker (broadcaster and former England striker) · Bruce Lloyd · Harry Longman · Sam Lupton · Fred Macmillan · Louisa Mann · Doro Marden · Nick Marple · Sophie Marple · Madelyn Martinez · Samantha Mayaveram · Val McDermid (novelist) · 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 (economist and former City trader) · John Stickley · Tim Stumpff · Peter Sundgren · Ben Tibbits · Rebecca Tinsley · Jennifer Tomkins · Willem van Hoorn · Matthew Varnham · Edward Vickery · Suzanne Wise · Phil White · Leticia White · Vicki Wilkinson
